If the government ever pays for modifications to TrustedNT or Trusted Solaris then that is more harmful. You can't use any modifications to commercial software they buy for their needs without buying the software. When they use GPL or BSD software everyone benefits.
And you want to talk about judicial activism? How about the decision by the SCOTUS in the 19th century that corporations which are collectives are individuals before the constitution and law. Corporations' rights were established not by law and constitutional amendments, but by the same mechanism that gave us Roe v Wade and the recent sodomy ruling.
1. Not everyone benefits. Companies that are part of the "GPL community" benefit, and those who do not wish to be part of the GPL community do not benefit. In fact, the govt is funding their competition.
2. If the federal govt was developing modifications to TrustedNT or Trusted Solaris, and giving them to the respective companies, the GPL bigots on this board would be going berzerk. Their acceptance of the government's development of SE Linux just shows how quickly some conservatives will abandon their limited government principles at the thought of some pork/welfare spending going their way.
Not inconsistent at all, nor welfare. Government is simply complying with the copyright conditions of the GPL---after all, government is bound by copyright law just as all of us are. The government is still free to classify and keep secret under the GPL, or develop a code base from scratch outside the GPL limitations (and I agree with you that any such code DEVELOPED FROM SCRATCH should be public domain).
I'm not arguing that the govt should violate anyone's coypright... But you seem to have skipped a step. You've skipped right over the part where we should ask ourselves, "Why is our government developing operating system code in the first place?"
SE Linux is no different than "Airbus Linux".