Court case questions military recruiting
Published Dec. 6, 2005
The U.S. Supreme Court will begin hearing arguments today regarding the 1996 Solomon Amendment, which allows the federal government to deny funds to colleges who do not allow military recruiting.
The case pits the Forum For Academic and Institutional Rights Inc., an association of 38 law schools and facilities, against the United States Department of Justice.
An earlier ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit struck down the Solomon Amendment.
The Department of Justice is appealing the case to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Washington attorney Sam Heldan, who represents the National Association for Law Placement, Syracuse University and various professors at Cornell University, said law schools are particularly concerned with the amendment as an issue of equality and justice. Military recruiting is discriminatory against gay and lesbian students, Heldan said.
In September, the Pentagon threatened to withhold $300 million in federal funds from Harvard University. The university agreed to no longer continue its year-old restriction on military recruiting. If the amendment is revoked, Harvard could restore restrictions on military recruiting on campus.
"There is no evidence that the military needs the schools' assistance at all in recruiting members of the JAG Corps, so a victory for the plaintiff would be a victory for civil liberties with no demonstrated costs to the military," Heldan said. "If the amendment stands, the government could potentially find different causes the government wants to support at colleges and universities and withhold funding if the schools do not comply."
The MU School of Law is a member of the Association of American Law Schools, which contains 166 members. According to the AALS Web site, a regulation requires that "employers that seek to use law school career services provide written assurance that will not discriminate based upon sexual orientation or any other protected categories."
In 1997, Carl Monk, the AALS executive vice president and executive director, sent a memo to the deans of all the member law schools excusing them from barring the military from campus.
"Schools that choose not to comply will have their noncompliance excused so long as they engage in appropriate activities to ameliorate the negative effects that granting access to the military has on the quality of the learning environment for its students, particularly its gay and lesbian students," the memo stated.
MU Dean and Professor of Law Larry Dessem said if the amendment is struck down, the AALS would convene a session in their legislative body to decide whether they will continue to participate in army recruiting.
"I think the amendment is trying to cure a problem that may not exist," Dessem said. "One of the main questions in the case is whether the military is being hammered by not being able to recruit at the law schools. Most hiring of lawyers does not occur during on-campus interviews because most law students find jobs by contacting employers. So if the military does not participate in on-campus recruitment, it does not mean they will not be able to hire attorneys."