Meinhold

These consolidated appeals present a number of questions arising out of the Navy’s discharge of Petty Officer Volker Keith Meinhold on account of his statement on ABC World News Tonight, “Yes, I am in fact gay.”

Finding that the Navy’s policy was to ban gays and lesbians based on status, not on conduct, and that such a policy violates the Equal Protection Clause of the Fifth Amendment, the district court granted Meinhold’s motion for summary judgment and enjoined the Department of Defense (DOD) from discharging or denying enlistment based on sexual orientation. 1 It also restrained DOD from maintaining files having to do with the sexual orientation of any member of the armed forces in the absence of conduct affecting the military mission. The court did not rule on Meinhold’s estoppel claim, and it declined to require exhaustion of administrative remedies despite Meinhold’s failure to appeal to the Board for Correction of Naval Records (BCNR) as it found that the government had conceded that a new hearing would result in the same decision.

Meinhold’s nonconstitutional claim should have been resolved before his equal protection claim was reached. Nevertheless, because the record…