No obligation

Sigh. As the WashPo says,

The Obama administration won a temporary stay against the moratorium on "don't ask, don't tell" Wednesday, granting the Pentagon the right to once again enforce the 17-year-old ban on gay men and women serving openly in the military.

It's not true that "the Justice Department is generally required to defend existing law" - there have been plenty of times when the DOJ has not appealed. For instance, federal judge Lewis Kaplan’s decision barring prosecutors from calling the witness from whom accused terrorist Ahmed Ghailani purchased the TNT used to bomb the American embassy in Tanzania in August 1998; the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit ruling that the Park Service's regulation forcing individuals or small groups to obtain a permit for First Amendment-protected activities was unconstitutional; and numerous others over the past half-century or longer.

But Obama's DOJ has chosen not to defend civil liberties and civil rights. Instead, it defends warrantless wiretapping, DADT, DOMA, and the National Day of Prayer. Is there any wonder that progressives and liberals and others who were enthusiastic two years ago are now anything but?