[JURIST] US Undersecretary of Defense Clifford Stanley [official biography] on Friday testified [hearing record] that the repeal of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell (DADT) [10 USC § 654; JURIST news archive] is on track to be complete midsummer. Nine percent of the military was trained in the past month without resistance, Stanley told the House of Representatives Armed Services Committee Subcommittee on Military Personnel [official website] at the hearing. Stanley said the transition has gone “extremely well” and that the military is on track to meet its goal of completing the repeal training by midsummer. Stanley spent the majority of the meeting contesting Republican challenges that the new policy is bad for the military.

Last month, the Obama administration asked the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit to delay its review of an order striking down DADT [JURIST report] policy because the it will soon be ended. In December, President Barack Obama signed legislation that would repeal DADT [JURIST report] as soon as the president, secretary of defense and chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff certify that the necessary policies and procedures are in place within the military to implement the repeal.