The Department of
Defense has withheld federal funding from three law
schools under the federal law known as the Solomon
Amendment, reports the Yale Daily News. New
York Law School, Vermont Law School, and William
Mitchell College of Law in St. Paul, Minn., have been
targeted under Solomon after refusing to allow military
recruiters on their campuses because of the armed
services' ban on openly gay soldiers.
The Solomon
Amendment prohibits schools receiving federal funds from
denying the military entry to campuses, access to students
on campus, and access to student recruiting
information. The law, passed by Congress in 1996, is
used to punish schools that prevent military recruiters full
access to students because of the government's "don't ask,
don't tell" policy.
Last year the
third circuit court of appeals ruled the law
unconstitutional, finding that it violated universities'
free speech rights by forcing them to violate
nondiscrimination policies that include sexual
orientation. An appeal of that case, FAIR v.
Rumsfeld, will be heard by the U.S. Supreme Court in
December. FAIR is a coalition of 24 law schools
challenging the law in court.
"Colleges and
universities should not be forced to compromise their
policies of equal opportunity in order to receive federal
funding," said C. Dixon Osburn, executive director of
Servicemembers Legal Defense Network, which filed an
amicus brief in the third circuit case. "It is the
military's policy of discrimination, and not universities'
attempts to treat all students fairly, that should change.
The armed forces should play by the same rule as all
other employers seeking access to students: no
discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation."
Pentagon
spokeswoman Lt. Col. Ellen Krenke told the Yale paper the
three law schools were targeted because they did not
provide a written policy declaring that they do not
have a policy or practice of denying the military
access to campus. "New York Law School officials found out
earlier this month from the Pentagon that federal funding
would be withheld if they did not allow recruiters
back on their campus," the paper reported.