DADT Judge a "No-Nonsense" Jurist

Virginia A. Phillips, the federal judge in Riverside, Calif., who ruled "don't ask, don't tell" unconstitutional, "did not expect [the decision] to get as much attention as it did," she tells The New York Times.

"During the course of the case, there wasn't a lot of attention paid to it," Phillips said of the trial, which was covered by only a few media outlets, including The Advocate, the Associated Press, and the Los Angeles Times.

Phillips, a 53-year-old Clinton appointee who became a federal district judge in 1999, was described in the short profile as a no-nonsense jurist with little patience for unprepared attorneys in her courtroom. "If she gets anything less, you will know it," said attorney William J. Genego.

Evidence of that impatience was on display during the Log Cabin Republicans DADT trial in her courtroom in July, when Justice Department attorneys objected continuously to evidence and witness testimony offered by the gay Republican group.

"If this were a jury trial ... I would only once give a limiting instruction to the jury," Phillips told one DOJ attorney. "So frankly, to stand up and make that objection every time when it's a court trial, I'm really puzzled that you're doing that, because it's not my first trial."

Read the full NYT piece here.