SEATTLE — When the military wants to discharge homosexual service men and women under the “don’t ask, don’t tell” law, it must justify its decision each time, a federal appeals court panel ruled Wednesday in the case of a highly decorated flight nurse who sued the Air Force over her firing.

The ruling is the first appeals court ruling in the country that evaluates “don’t ask, don’t tell” in light of Lawrence v. Texas, the Supreme Court’s 2003 decision that struck down that state’s ban on sodomy.

The three judges from 9th Circuit Court of Appeals reinstated Maj. Margaret Witt’s lawsuit against the Air Force, saying the facts of her case must be developed to determine if her dismissal furthered the military’s stated goals of military readiness and troop harmony.

“When the government attempts to intrude upon the personal and private lives of homosexuals,” Judge Ronald M. Gould wrote, “the government must advance an important governmental interest, the intrusion must significantly further that interest, and the intrusion must be necessary to further that interest.”