The Obama administration urged the U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday to let the armed forces continue discharging openly gay or lesbian troops, and said a federal judge's order halting enforcement of the "don't ask, don't tell" law was an "extraordinary and unwarranted intrusion into internal military affairs."

The administration opposes the 1993 law, which requires that gay or lesbian service members who disclose their sexual orientation be discharged. But it is appealing a federal judge's ruling in September that declared the law unconstitutional.

A federal appeals court suspended the judge's ruling last month and allowed discharges to resume during the government's appeal, which could last a year or more.

Log Cabin Republicans, the gay rights organization that challenged the law in 2004, asked the Supreme Court last week to lift the stay and halt the discharges, a request the Justice Department opposed Wednesday.

"An immediate court-ordered repeal of the statute would risk disruption to military commanders and service members as they carry out their missions, especially in zones of active combat," Neal Katyal, the acting solicitor general, said in the government's filing.

Katyal said repeal should be left up to Congress and the Defense Department, which is polling service members and studying possible changes in military training. Its report is due Dec. 1.

The prospect of congressional action is uncertain, though. Senate Republicans blocked a repeal measure with a filibuster in August and have shown no sign of changing their position for the brief session that begins Monday. Republican gains in last week's election may have eliminated chances of passage once the new Congress is seated in January.

R. Clarke Cooper, executive director of Log Cabin Republicans, said the organization has met with Republican senators who might support changing the law but have not been contacted by the Obama administration.

"The White House has been missing in action on Capitol Hill, undermining efforts to repeal 'don't ask, don't tell' in the final session of this Congress, potentially leaving the judiciary as the only solution," Cooper said.

In her Sept. 9 ruling, U.S. District Judge Virginia Phillips of Riverside said the law violates service members' privacy and freedom of speech while reducing military effectiveness by discharging skilled personnel and aggravating troop shortages.