Secretary of Defense Robert Gates told reporters Sunday that he will release the Pentagon’s study on “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” one day early, adding that, “if this law is going to change, it’s better that it be changed by legislation than it simply be struck down …by the courts with the potential for us having to implement it immediately.”

“Everything is on schedule and my current intention is to release the report to Congress and to the public on November 30th,” said Gates.

Just last Friday, November 18, Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell said the report would not be sent to Congress or made public before December 1st—“not before December 1st to anyone.”

Clearly something has persuaded Department of Defense (DOD) to budge a little on its hardened deadline. And these latest comments from Gates, in response to questions during a press availability in Bolivia, suggest DOD is preparing for some “change” in the law which currently bans openly gay people from the military. It also indicates that Gates believes a federal court might well strike down Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell (DADT) if Congress fails to repeal it during the lame-duck session.

In response to a follow-up question about what chances he thinks repeal would have if the vote is carried over into the next session of Congress, Gates did not offer an assessment but expressed “concern” that decisions by federal courts in lawsuits challenging DADT had forced the military to carry out “four different policies” concerning gays in the military “in the space of two weeks…including, at one point, a directive immediately to suspend the law.”

“Having to implement this immediately and without preparation and without taking the steps to mitigate whatever risks there are,” said Gates, “I think is the worst of all possible outcomes….”

“All I know is,” he added, “if this law is going to change, it’s better that it be changed by legislation than simply be struck down—rather than have it struck down by the courts with the potential for us having to implement it immediately.”

The vote on DADT repeal is not likely to be carried over into the next session of Congress. After prodding from the president and White House senior staff the current Senate Majority Leader, Harry Reid, agreed to try and bring the Defense Authorization bill to the floor in the lame-duck session with the DADT repeal language intact.