On October 27, 2011, the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network (SLDN) brought suit in federal court on behalf of several military servicemembers and veterans in same-sex marriages. In a November 21 filing in the case of "McLaughlin v. Panetta", they wrote, "Any claim that DOMA, as applied to military spousal benefits, survives rational basis review is strained because paying unequal benefits to service members runs directly counter to the military values of uniformity, fairness and unit cohesion." The benefits at issue include medical and dental benefits, basic housing and transportation allowances, family separation benefits, visitation rights in military hospitals, and survivor benefit plans. The case was assigned to Judge Richard G. Stearns. One of the plaintiffs in the case, lesbian Charlie Morgan, who was undergoing chemotherapy, met with an assistant to Boehner on February 9, 2012, to ask him to consider not defending DOMA. The case is on hold at the request of both sides in anticipation of the outcome of two other First Circuit cases on appeal, "Gill v. Office of Personnel Management" and "Massachusetts v. United States Department of Health and Human Services". On February 17, the DOJ announced it could not defend the constitutionality of the statutes challenged in the case. In May 2012, the parties filed briefs arguing whether BLAG has a right to intervene. On June 27, Stearns asked the parties to explain by July 18 why given the decision in "Windsor" he should not find for the plaintiffs. On July 18, BLAG's response acknowledged that "Supreme Court recently resolved the issue of DOMA Section 3's constitutionality" and asked to be allowed to withdraw from the case. It took no position on the two statutes at issue in the case, which define a "spouse" as "a person of the opposite sex", except to say that "the question of whether [that definition is constitutional remains open".