In March 2010, Lt. Choi and Capt. James Pietrangelo (Army Lawyer discharged under DADT in 2004) chained themselves to the fence of the White House, encouraging others to join the movement for gay civil rights. They spent the night in DC Jail. Repeating the action in April with a bigger group, all charges were dropped. Finally by Summer 2010, Lt. Choi was discharged from the army. He relinquished his West Point graduation ring to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, demanding urgency on civil rights legislation. In November, the protest at the White House was repeated, and Lt. Choi was the only protestor to plead NOT GUILTY based on first amendment rights to peaceably assemble and speak in a public forum. Choi has also been arrested in Moscow Russia for LGBT rights, in Las Vegas for Employment non-Dsicrimination, and also in DC for Environmental Causes, and won dismissals in every court action, always pleading not guilty.
This is the final trial, with a maximum jail sentence of 6 months in federal prison for what is normally something at the level of a parking ticket, left to traffic judges. The trial has already made legal history in the arena of Criminal Procedure and the Writ of Mandamus which the prosecution won, after Lt. Choi successfully argued discriminatory practices against protestors and LGBT soldiers, in his own testimony.
Lt. Choi has been on trial for 3 years now (as the prosecution revived all his protests of 2010) and represents himself. The prosecutor has also refused to address Lt. Choi by his rightfully earned rank, disobeying an order from the judge to comply with these courtesies. Lt. Choi argued this legal requirement based on African American citizens being denied their ranks and honorifics in court until the 1950s. This trial is the sole obstacle to Lt. Choi’s reinstatement in the US Army and the topic of the protest, “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” is the sole reason for Lt. Choi’s discharge. He appears before the judge in full military uniform for every hearing.
The trial is focused on free speech and LGBT civil rights. The rights of a defendant and criminal procedure are also central issues in this final lap of the trial.
The Insomniac Libertarian 
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