COUNTERING MILITARY RECRUITMENT
Articles: Military Recruiting: Student Privacy
Supreme Court Hears Case of Recruiters on Campuses
DAVID STOUT, The New York Times
December 6, 2005
WASHINGTON, Dec. 6 - The Supreme Court heard a lively argument today on an issue that touches on free speech, gay rights and national defense in the dangerous, post-9/11 world.The question was whether the federal government can deny financial support to an entire university if any school within it does not give military recruiters the same access to students that it gives to other potential employers on campus.
Many law schools have curbed military recruiting because they disapprove of the ban on military service by openly gay men and women. In response, Congress enacted the Solomon Amendment, requiring universities to provide equal access to military recruiters if they want to receive federal money."That opportunity allows the military a fair shot at recruiting the best and the brightest for the military's critical and vital mission," Solicitor General Paul Clement told the justices during the argument in Rumsfeld v. Forum for Academic and Institutional Rights, or FAIR.
"The federal government does not insist on any predetermined level of access," Mr. Clement said. "Rather, it simply asks what other employers receive. Likewise, the recipient schools remain free to criticize the military and its policies."He added, "Of course, they remain free to decline federal funds altogether."
But Joshua Rosenkranz, the attorney for FAIR, saw things differently.
"This case is not about whether military recruiters will be barred at the campus gates," he said. "Congress had a law on the books that guaranteed entry to campus. But that was not what Congress really wanted, so it passed a new law.
"What Congress really wants is to squelch even the most symbolic elements of the law schools' resistance to disseminating the military's message."
Both lawyers came in for sharp questioning. "It seems to me you've got us galloping in the wrong direction," Justice Antonin Scalia said to Mr. Clement. Alluding to the threat of cutting off money, Justice Scalia said he thought the Solomon Amendment required "much more" from the universities than simply providing equal access to military recruiters.
Mr. Rosenkranz said the case was in part about "two messages going on here, and they are clashing."
"There is the military's message, which the schools are interpreting as 'Uncle Sam does not want you,' and there is the school's message, which is, 'We do not abet those who discriminate. That is immoral.' "
But Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. sounded skeptical at one point. The Solomon Amendment, he said, "doesn't insist that you do anything."
"It says that if you want our money," he said, "you have to let our recruiters on campus."Billions of dollars in federal aid is at stake.The Solomon Amendment was enacted in 1995. It was named after its sponsor, Representative Gerald B. H. Solomon, a conservative Republican from Glens Falls, N.Y., who served more than eight years in the Marines and successfully pushed to deny federal student aid to men who failed to register for the draft.Mr. Solomon's 20 years in Congress were marked by tough talk. In 1996, for instance, he challenged Representative Patrick Kennedy, Democrat of Rhode Island, to "step outside" to settle a disagreement over a proposed assault weapons ban, whichMr. Solomon opposed. Mr. Solomon retired in 1998 and died in 2001 at the age of 71.
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