Subject: Appeal in Cammermeyer Case Against Gay Ban to be Heard
From: [email-masked]
Date: Mon, 4 Dec 1995 11:44:23 -0500

PRESS RELEASE

Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund, Inc.
Northwest Women's Law Center
Contact:	Lambda: Beatrice Dohrn, Esq.
		(212) 995-8585
		NWLC: Lisa Stone
		(206) 682-9552

Appeal in Cammermeyer Case Against Gay Ban to be Heard

(NEW YORK, December 1, 1995)    The U.S. government's appeal of Col.
Margarethe Cammermeyer's successful challenge to the constitutionality of the
former military ban on lesbian and gay service members will be heard by a
panel of the Ninth Circuit federal Court of Appeals at 1:30 p.m. on Monday,
December 4, 1995.  As the government does not contest Col. Cammermeyer's
reinstatement, the court will only be reviewing whether the order issued by
the lower court was overbroad.

	Based solely on her statement that she is a lesbian, the military discharged
Col. Cammermeyer from her position as Chief Nurse of the Washington National
Guard on June 11, 1992.  Col. Cammermeyer, a Bronze Star recipient with
twenty-eight years of service in the Army, Army Reserve, and National Guard,
filed suit that day.  On June 1, 1994, U.S. District Court Judge Thomas
Zilly, granting Col. Cammermeyer's motion for summary judgment, found that
the military ban on lesbians and gay men has no rational basis and is rooted
solely in prejudice.  Judge Zilly ordered the military to reinstate Col.
Cammermeyer to her former position, prohibited the government from taking any
adverse action against her based on statements concerning her sexual
orientation, and declared the military's discharge of her and the military's
former regulation unconstitutional.

	Because the government admits the reinstatement is proper, Col. Cammermeyer
 will continue to serve regardless of the resolution of the appeal. The
appeal is limited to the issue of whether it was proper for the district
court to go beyond ordering Col. Cammermeyer reinstated to rule that the
former policy, as applied to her and on its face, is unconstitutional.

	Col. Cammermeyer is represented by Mary Newcombe and Sherryl Elise
Michaelson of the Los Angeles law firm of Hedges & Caldwell (who are
cooperating attorneys for Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund, Inc.),
Jeffrey I. Tilden and Michael Himes of the Seattle law firm of Perkins Coie
(who are cooperating attorneys for the Northwest Women's Law Center), and Jon
W. Davidson and Beatrice Dohrn of Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund.
 The Military Law Task Force is acting as of counsel in the appeal. 

	Argument of the appeal will be held in Courtroom 815 of the U.S. Courthouse
located at 1010 Fifth Street, Seattle, Washington.  Mary Newcombe will be
presenting the argument on behalf of Col. Cammermeyer.  -30-