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Dan Choi Suffers Setback in Protest Case

By JESSICA GRESKO

WASHINGTON – A gay West Point graduate discharged from the military for revealing his sexual orientation has been dealt a setback in a court case resulting from his arrest during a White House demonstration.

The chief judge of the U.S. District Court in Washington ruled Tuesday that a judge overseeing Dan Choi’s trial cannot take into account whether prosecutors were treating Choi’s November 2010 protest differently because its subject was “don’t ask, don’t tell.”

Choi’s lawyer had previously argued that his client was being treated more harshly, and Magistrate Judge John Facciola said that appeared to be the case.

But Chief Judge Royce C. Lamberth wrote in an opinion Tuesday that Choi’s attorney should have raised the issue of harsher treatment before trial and he cannot now use it as a defense.

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