Editing Don't ask, don't tell (section)

===''McVeigh v. Cohen''===
In January 1998, Senior Chief Petty Officer Timothy R. McVeigh{{efn|Not to be confused with convicted [[Oklahoma City bombing|Oklahoma City bomber]], [[Timothy McVeigh|Timothy J. McVeigh]]}}  won a preliminary injunction from a U.S. district court that prevented his discharge from the U.S. Navy for "homosexual conduct" after 17 years of service. His lawsuit did not challenge the DADT policy but asked the court to hold the military accountable for adhering to the policy's particulars. The Navy had investigated McVeigh's sexual orientation based on his [[AOL]] email account name and user profile. District Judge [[Stanley Sporkin]] ruled in ''[[McVeigh v. Cohen]]'' that the Navy had violated its own DADT guidelines: "Suggestions of sexual orientation in a private, anonymous email account did not give the Navy a sufficient reason to investigate to determine whether to commence discharge proceedings."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.internetlibrary.com/pdf/McVeigh-Cohen-DDC.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110101052148/http://www.internetlibrary.com/pdf/McVeigh-Cohen-DDC.pdf |archive-date=2011-01-01 |url-status=live|title=Memorandum Opinion, ''Timothy R. McVeigh v. William S. Cohen, et al.'' |last=Sporkin|first=Stanley|date=January 26, 1998|work=U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia|access-date=September 21, 2014}}</ref> He called the Navy's investigation "a search and destroy mission" against McVeigh. The case also attracted attention because a navy paralegal had misrepresented himself when querying AOL for information about McVeigh's account. [[Frank Rich]] linked the two issues: "McVeigh is as clear-cut a victim of a witch hunt as could be imagined, and that witch hunt could expand exponentially if the military wants to add on-line fishing to its invasion of service members' privacy."<ref>{{cite news|first=Frank|last=Rich|date=January 17, 1998|title=The 2 Tim McVeighs|work=[[The New York Times]] |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1998/01/17/opinion/journal-the-2-tim-mcveighs.html |access-date=September 21, 2014}}</ref> AOL apologized to McVeigh and paid him damages. McVeigh reached a settlement with the Navy that paid his legal expenses and allowed him to retire with full benefits in July. ''[[The New York Times]]'' called Sporkin's ruling "a victory for gay rights, with implications for the millions of people who use computer on-line services".<ref name=nyt19980612>{{cite news |last1= Shenon |first1=Philip |title= Sailor Victorious in Gay Case of On-Line Privacy |url= https://www.nytimes.com/1998/06/12/us/sailor-victorious-in-gay-case-of-on-line-privacy.html |access-date= September 21, 2014 |work=The New York Times |date= June 12, 1998}}</ref>