Litigation

Gays-in-Military Ruling Puts Judge in Limelight

By Peter Hardin

A New York Times article profiled her as a “woman in the news,” but federal Judge Virginia Phillips of California said she never expected a recent opinion she wrote to thrust her into a national spotlight.

“I did not expect it to get as much attention as it did,” Judge Phillips (photo courtesy of Riverside Press-Enterprise) said about her decision declaring unconstitutional the U.S. military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy toward its gay members (see Gavel Grab).

The 53-year-old judge, who was named to the bench by President Bill Clinton, found the policy violates First Amendment free speech rights and Fifth Amendment due process guarantees.

Tony Perkins, a conservative activist, branded her a judicial activist. But Erwin Chemerinsky,  dean of the University of California, Irvine, law school, described her ruling as ?stunning in its thoroughness? and ?careful job of explaining why don?t ask, don?t tell violates both due process and the First Amendment.?

People who know or who have worked with Judge Phillips variously called her style scholarly, hard-working, balanced, no-nonsense, and always prepared.

She told the Times of her enjoyment serving at the federal trial court level. It provides, she said, ?the variety of human drama ? every day, there?s a new case.?

An article in the Riverside (California) Press-Enterprise, she was described as a “a by-the-book jurist on the bench and a helpful and humorous colleague outside the courtroom.” She sits in the federal courthouse in Riverside.

Full post as published by The Gavel on September 13, 2010 (boomark / email).