Pelosi: I Hope Obama Administration Doesn’t Appeal Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell Ruling

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http://thinkprogress.org/2010/10/13/pelosi-dadt-ruling/

This afternoon, in a conference call with progressive bloggers, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) joined a growing number of Democrats in calling on the Department of Justice not to appeal yesterday’s court ruling prohibiting the implementation of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell. “I hope, I haven’t really heard officially that the administration is going to appeal this, but in any event, I hope they don’t,” she said in reply to a question from AmericaBlog’s John Aravosis. “I myself have always wanted a moratorium on any discharges.”

Pelosi, who celebrated the ruling in a tweet yesterday, reiterated that the House passed legislation ending the ban with a 40 vote margin and stressed that this “is not an issue for us, it’s a value that we mustn’t cede on.”

She predicted that the House could also pass the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA), a bill that has yet to be marked up before the House Education and Labor committee, if “we could hold our members” on the motion to recommit — a tactic under which the GOP could conceivably introduce an alternative that does not offer protections to transgender people and peel off several Democratic votes.

“It’s a choice, it’s a choice,” Pelosi stressed, speaking to disheartened LGBT voters. “We all haven’t gotten everything we want, but everything we got on these issues came from the Democrats and so that’s what I would say to them.” “It’s a fight and again, we don’t intend do lose it.”

Update CNN is reporting that DOJ "is expected to appeal" the court's DADT decision "as soon as Wednesday," according to senior administration officials.

21 Senators urge Obama not to appeal DADT decision
http://gay.americablog.com/2010/10/21-senators-urge-obama-not-to-appeal.html