Legal Commentary

Add Bad Ethics to the Problems of ?Don?t Ask, Don?t Tell??

By Dale Carpenter

My colleague Richard Painter, former chief ethics counsel to President Bush, thinks so because it ?institutionalizes dishonesty.? Last fall, he sent a letter outlining his concerns to President Obama, whose administration has been lumbering toward pushing for a congressional repeal. ?It is the only instance I know of,? writes Painter, ?in which an employee of the United States government can formally suffer discipline and dismissal for telling the truth.? No response yet from the administration.