Petty Officer Meinhold was represented by detailed military defense counsel, Matthew G. Gloss, LT, JAGC, USNR.
He worked as a flight sonar analyst and instructor at Moffett Field Naval Air Station, near San Jose, California, where, according to later court filings, he was "consistently praised by students for his teaching abilities.
[5] In September 1991, he was awarded the title "Master Training Specialist", an honor granted to those rated in the top ten percent of all Navy instructors.
He contacted the Human Rights Campaign about the problem and they arranged for him to speak with the media about the witch hunts and about being gay in the Navy.
Several officers testified on his behalf and one apologized for any inadvertent prejudice and said he had changed his opinion about homosexuals as a result of knowing Meinhold.
On November 7, 1992, U.S. District Court Judge Terry J. Hatter, Jr. issued a temporary injunction against the Navy and ordered Meinhold reinstated.
[6] On November 12, President-elect Bill Clinton, in response to a reporter's question at his first post-election press conference about the injunction in Meinhold's case, reaffirmed his commitment to lift restrictions on military service by gays and lesbians early in his presidency.
The Department of Defense's justifications for its policy banning gays and lesbians from military service are based on cultural myths and false stereotypes.
Hatter cited a study commissioned by the Defense Department in 1988 that found that sexual orientation was not related to job performance and quoted Lawrence J. Korb, an Assistant Secretary of Defense in the Reagan administration, who had said "there is no longer any justification for the armed services' current ban on homosexuals serving in the military.
[14] On March 12, 1993, lawyers for the Department of Defense failed to get an emergency stay of Hatter's order from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.
[19] On August 31, 1994, a three-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit ruled unanimously that the Navy could not discharge Petty Officer Meinhold merely because he said he is gay.
It noted that "No similar assumption is made with respect to service members who are heterosexual" unless they are guilty of such prohibited conduct as adultery, sodomy or bigamy.
[7] The Department of Defense did not appeal the decision,[21] since it related to old regulations that had now been replaced by DADT, and the administration had won a different case, that of Joseph Steffan, a week earlier.
His attorney commented: "He was told by the executive officer of his squadron that he has a clean slate, and that he would be permitted to remain, but that if he says he's gay again, then they would be taking action against him under the new policy.