A federal appeals court has ordered the U.S. government to stop immediately stop enforcing the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” ban on homosexuals serving in the military. The three-judge panel from San Francisco’s 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that since Congress has already repealed the policy, a move that came last December, and the Pentagon is actively preparing for an influx of homosexual personnel into the nation’s armed forces, there is no longer a reason to continue with the stay the court had earlier placed on a lower court ruling overturning the ban.

The July 6th ruling “came in response to a motion brought by Log Cabin Republicans, a group for gay GOP members, which last year persuaded a lower court judge to declare the ban unconstitutional,” reported AP News. The Pentagon appealed U.S. District Judge Virginia Phillips’ ruling that the ban on homosexuals should be immediately lifted, and the 9th Circuit agreed to keep the ban in place while it considered the implications.

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Photo: Gen. James Amos, Assistant Commandant of the U.S. Marine Corp, testifies before the Senate Armed Services Committee, June 22, 2010, that now is the wrong time to overturn the "don't ask, don't tell" policy prohibiting gays from openly serving in the military, as U.S. troops remain in the thick of war in Afghanistan: AP Images