The Obama administration has appealed a federal judge's ruling overturning the "don't ask, don't tell" law and asked the judge for a stay that would let the military resume discharges of openly gay and lesbian soldiers.

In separate actions on Thursday, Justice Department lawyers asked U.S. District Judge Virginia Phillips of Riverside to suspend her ruling - saying it "threatens to disrupt ongoing military operations" during wartime - and challenged the ruling in the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco.

The department said it will ask the appeals court for a stay if Phillips does not act by noon Monday. The Log Cabin Republicans, the 19,000-member gay rights organization that sued to overturn the law in 2004, said it would fight the administration's request.

"Brave, patriotic gays and lesbians are serving in our armed forces to fight for all of our constitutional rights while the government is denying them theirs," said Dan Woods, the group's attorney. He said the Justice Department's action "repeats the broken promises and empty words from President Obama," who has called for the policy to be repealed but has also directed government lawyers to defend it.

"Don't ask, don't tell," enacted in 1993, prohibits the military from asking service members about their sexual orientation but requires those who disclose that they are gay or lesbian to be discharged.

Phillips presided over a nonjury trial in July, where witnesses included service members discharged under the policy and researchers who said other nations have successfully allowed gays and lesbians to serve openly.

The judge ruled Sept. 9 that the law intrudes needlessly on service members' private lives and harms military effectiveness by excluding skilled personnel, aggravating troop shortages and lowering recruitment standards. Phillips ordered an immediate halt Tuesday to all discharges and investigations under the policy, rejecting the administration's request to wait until Congress acted.

The House passed legislation supported by Obama in January that would repeal the law, but a Republican filibuster has stalled the bill in the Senate. The repeal would take effect only after the Defense Department completes a study of how the change would affect the armed forces and how it could be implemented.

That review was the focus of the administration's arguments Thursday.

"A precipitous change in policy could harm compelling public interests in military readiness, combat effectiveness, unit cohesion, morale, good order, discipline, and recruiting and retention," government lawyers told Phillips.

The study, due Dec. 1, will include a survey of the opinions of hundreds of thousands of troops, some of whom have already expressed opposition to allowing gays and lesbians to serve openly, Clifford Stanley, an adviser to Defense Secretary Robert Gates, said in a court declaration.

An immediate repeal would tell service members that "their views, concerns and perspectives do not matter," Stanley said.

Phillips' injunction also puts gays and lesbians "in a position of grave uncertainty," Stanley said, because they might face discharge if they reveal their sexual orientation and a higher court reinstates the law. A stay during appeal would eliminate that dilemma, he said.