The Obama administration has been pushing Congress to repeal DADT as courts have also been weighing in on the issue. Earlier this month, the Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC) [official website] heard conflicting testimony [JURIST report] from top military leaders on the services' readiness to repeal DADT. The hearing was held to review a Department of Defense (DOD) [official website] report [text, PDF; JURIST report], released earlier that week, which concluded that repealing DADT would only minimally effect military effectiveness, soldier retention and family readiness. Last month, US Air Force Major Margaret Witt, who was discharged under DADT, became the first openly gay person to serve in the US military after the Obama administration did not pursue a stay of a previous federal court decision ordering her reinstatement [JURIST reports]. Also in November, Defense Secretary Robert Gates called on the 112th Congress to repeal DADT [JURIST report]. Gates issued a memorandum in October limiting the authority to discharge openly gay service members [JURIST report] to five senior DOD officials. The policy was struck down by a federal court in September, but an appeals court has since stayed that ruling [JURIST reports]. Since the enactment of DADT in 1993, approximately 13,000 servicemen and women have been discharged from the armed forces as a result of the policy.

Bank of America has been the slowest of all the servicers to ramp up loss mitigation efforts in response to the housing crisis. It has shown callous disregard for the devastating effects its servicing practices have had on individual borrowers and on the economy as a whole...I am filing this lawsuit today because, after years of delay and broken promises, Arizonans should not have to wait any longer to seek redress. Our homeowners and communities need and deserve relief. Bank of America must be held accountable for its deceptive conduct and failed commitments.

Bank of America has recently been the target of other lawsuits alleging fraud. Earlier this month, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) [official website] reached a $137 million settlement agreement [press release; JURIST report] with BOA over fraud charges [order, PDF] in a lawsuit that claimed BOA used anti-competitive bidding processes with 20 state municipalities. In June, BOA subsidiary Countrywide Home Loans, Inc reached [JURIST report] a $108 million settlement agreement [text, PDF] with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) [official website] in response to a lawsuit that charged it with collecting excessive fees from homeowners facing foreclosure. In February, the Attorney General of New York brought a suit against BOA for misleading shareholders [JURIST report] by not disclosing to share holders their loss profits.