Supreme Court Declines Gay
Soldier’s Case
365Gay.com,
January 18, 2005
By Doreen Brandt 365Gay.com Washington Bureau
Washington—The Supreme Court
declined Tuesday turned down an appeal from a gay Air Force lieutenant.
Second Lt. Ryan W. Davis had sought a review by the high
court of his criminal conviction for having sex with a 15-year-old boy.
Davis pleaded guilty to consensual sodomy and conduct
unbecoming to an officer in military court following an April 1997 meeting
with a boy at a park in Gulf Breeze, Florida.
He was kicked out of the Air Force, confined for 24
months and ordered to forfeit all pay and allowances.
Davis’ appeal was based on the Supreme Court’s 2003
decision in Lawrence v. Texas
which struck down sodomy laws.
As is standard for the court the Justices gave no
explanation for refusing to hear the case, but some legal experts said they
believed the rejection was the result of the age of the person Davis had sex
with.
It is the second time in as many weeks that the court has
refused to take up a gay issue. Last week the justices declined to hear a
challenge to Florida’s law which bars gays from adopting children.
Also last week, the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network
reported that that it received a record 1025 requests for assistance in 2004,
up from 991 similar requests in 2003, over discrimination under ‘Don’t Ask
Don’t Tell’.
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