Reply #2: This is one of the hazards of the way the "repeal" was undertaken.

[Pab Sungenis]

If Obama AND Gates AND Mullen don't all certify that the time is right to lift the ban before January 20, 2013, then a Teahadist successor to Obama could stop everything dead in its tracks.

And even if they DO certify it and the law is finally off the books, nothing is stopping a future Teahadist President from issuing an Executive Order reinstating it since taking the law off the books essentially takes us back to where we were in 1993: nothing codified and everything set in Pentagon policy.

If Obama hadn't insisted on appealing the court decisions striking it down as Unconstitutional and just let the Courts end all this, then we wouldn't have to worry about people like Pawlenty.