The Servicemembers Legal Defense Network was surprised and disappointed by this week's adverse ruling by a federal appellate court in its challenge to the ban on gays in the military. But the most unexpected feature of Monday's opinion was the cautious analysis of the U.S. Supreme Court's 2003 opinion in Lawrence v. Texas advanced by U.S. District Court Judge George A O'Toole Jr. in Boston.

"We were confident that Lawrence changed the playing field," said SLDN spokesman Steve Ralls, "and we're still confident that it has."

"We respect the court, but we respectfully disagree with Judge O'Toole's interpretation of how Lawrence did, or specifically did not, change the legal viability of "don't ask, don't tell." I would certainly say that the Lawrence component of his decision was particularly surprising."

The advocacy group sued the government on behalf of 12 gay and lesbian former military personnel in December 2004. Eighteen months earlier, the U.S. Supreme Court had struck down the most dangerous antigay precedent in the arsenal of civil rights opponents, namely the 1986 decision in Bowers v. Hardwick that upheld states' rights to criminalize sodomy. With Bowers gone, and with the new rights articulated in Lawrence v. Texas, Kevin Cathcart, Lambda Legal's executive director, heralded "an entirely new chapter in our fight for equality for lesbians, gay men, bisexuals, and transgendered people."