The Pentagon on Friday announced it would abide by a federal court ruling and ordered a halt to all 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' proceedings.

The move comes after the three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco ordered the military to end enforcement of the 1993 law that bans gay and bisexual troops from serving openly.

The court on Wednesday reversed its own ruling that kept the policy in place after U.S. District Judge Virginia A. Phillips ruled last September that the Pentagon's policy was unconstitutional.

Phillips ruled that “Don't Ask, Don't Tell” has a “direct and deleterious effect” on the armed services and ordered an immediate halt to the policy. The government appealed the ruling to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.

According to the Army Times, the Pentagon has yet to announce whether it plans to appeal the ruling to the Supreme Court.

Aubrey Sarvis, executive director of Servicemembers Legal Defense Network (SLDN), applauded the moratorium but added that his group is looking for a concrete statement that the policy's end is finally at hand.

“SLDN welcomes this temporary suspension of 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' discharges in the wake of this week's court decision, but we urge the Pentagon to go further by suspending all investigations of service members that are currently ongoing, and confirm that the Department of Defense and Department of Justice are not preparing to appeal the court's ruling,” Sarvis said in a statement. “It's imperative for service members, gay and straight, who have been living with ambiguity for far too long as this process has languished unnecessarily. The time for clarity and finality is long overdue.”

The court order comes just weeks before President Barack Obama is expected to sign certification that the military is ready to end the ban. Under the terms outlined in last December's legislative repeal of the policy, “Don't Ask, Don't Tell” would end 60 days after certification.

Before leaving his post as Secretary of Defense on June 30, Robert Gates said he was prepared to sign off on certification, but decided to leave the task to his successor, Leon Panetta.