In effort to rebuild momentum for repealing Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell in this lame duck session of Congress, three Senators — Joe Lieberman, Mark Udall, and Kirsten Gillibrand — have issued a statement calling on the Senate hold a vote on the measure. The senators warn that if the body fails to act, the issue could be left to the courts:

“The Senate should act immediately to debate and pass a defense authorization bill and repeal ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ during the lame duck session. [...]

“The process established by the defense bill would also allow ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ to be repealed in an orderly manner, and only after the President, Secretary of Defense, and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff have certified to Congress that repeal is ‘consistent with the standards of military readiness, military effectiveness, unit cohesion, and recruiting and retention of the Armed Forces.’ If Congress does not act to repeal ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ in an orderly manner that leaves control with our nation’s military leaders, a federal judge may do so unilaterally in a way that is disruptive to our troops and ongoing military efforts. It is important that ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ be dealt with this year, and it appears that the only way that can happen is if it is on the defense bill.

With the Pentagon’s Working Group study on the policy due to come out on December 1, my colleagues Jeff Krehely and Crosby Burns have released this list of 10 lawmakers “who have said they are waiting to hear from the troops and military leaders before deciding on DADT repeal.” As they note, these senators “should be held to task once the report comes out.”

Earlier today, the Gay and Lesbian Advocates and Defenders (GLAD) and the American Civil Liberties Union filed two new lawsuits challenging the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), the 1996 law that prohibits the federal government from recognizing same-sex marriages. GLAD scored a victory with a similar challenge in July, when a Federal District Court in Boston ruled that DOMA interfered with the “traditional state right to define marriage and forces the state to ‘violate the equal protection rights of its citizens.’” The Obama administration is currently appealing the ruling.

These cases build on that victory in two important ways. As the New York Times explains, the two new lawsuits, “which involve plaintiffs from New York, Connecticut, Vermont and New Hampshire, expand the attack geographically and also encompass more of the 1,138 federal laws and regulations that the Defense of Marriage Act potentially affects — including the insurance costs amounting to several hundred dollars a month in the case of Ms. Pedersen and Ms. Meitzen, and a $350,0000 estate tax payment in the A.C.L.U. case.” And secondly, the cases argue that DOMA not only forces states to discriminate against same-sex spouses, but it also demands that private corporations deny benefits to same-sex partners. Metro Weekly’s Chris Geidner pulls out the following quote:

Under the terms of the Bayer [Corporation Pension] Plan, and in compliance with applicable federal law, where a Participant, like Thomas Buckholz, who has vested and has a nonforfeitable right to benefits under the Bayer Plan, dies prior to his annuity start date, the Participant’s surviving spouse shall be paid a Preretirement Survivor Annuity. (Bayer Plan, §5.6(a)).

As a result of the application of DOMA, 1 U.S.C. § 7, through ERISA and the Internal Revenue Code, Jerry has been denied the vested qualified preretirement survivor annuity (QPSA) available to all spouses of vested participants in defined benefit pension plans in the equivalent situation as Jerry finds himself today even though he is legally Tom’s surviving spouse under Connecticut law.

In the decision handed down in July, U.S. District Judge Joseph Tauro had concluded that “there is a historically entrenched tradition of federal reliance on state marital status determination,” and found that DOMA not only violates the tenth amendment but also “induces the Commonwealth to violate the equal protection rights of its citizens” embodied in the Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment.

“DOMA plainly conditions the receipt of federal funding on the denial of marriage-based benefits to same-sex married couples, though the same benefits are provided to similarly-situated heterosexual couples,” the Court ruled. ” As irrational prejudice plainly never constitutes a legitimate government interest, this court must hold Section 3 of DOMA as applied to Plaintiffs violates the equal protection principles embodied in the Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution.”

Secretary of Defense Robert Gates publicly called on the Senate to pass legislation repealing Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell in the lame duck session. But, the Pentagon has no plans to release the crucial Working Group report of the policy ahead of the December 1st deadline, Stars and Stripes is reporting, making it difficult for Congress to act on the motion before it adjourns later that month. From Stars and Stripes’ Kevin Baron:

The Pentagon says there are no plans for the crucial working group on the “don’t ask, don’t tell” law to rush its findings to Defense Secretary Robert Gates before Dec. 1, a deadline set months ago, despite pleas by President Barack Obama and Defense Secretary Robert Gates for Congress to repeal “don’t ask, don’t tell” in its lame-duck session.

“I’m not aware that there’s been any effort to speed it up,” Pentagon spokesman Col. David Lapan said Monday.

The Pentagon’s study is particularly significant since moderate Republicans and Democrats have pledged to listen to the troops before voting to repeal the policy and repeal advocates undoubtedly believe that moving up the release of the study would give Congress more time to consider it and increase the chances of success.

As it stands, “Reid has already left the NDAA out of his line up of three bills to be considered during the week of Nov. 15, meaning consideration of the legislation wouldn’t come up, if at all, until Senators return from the Thanksgiving holiday on Nov 29.” The Advocate’s Kerry Eleveld reports that, “Reid has also set a target date of Dec. 10 to adjourn for the year, which would leave just two weeks to complete the Defense bill – a near impossibility since debate usually takes two weeks and reconciling the House and Senate versions of the bill often takes another two weeks.”