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Supreme Court upholds Solomon Amendment
This morning, the Supreme Court ruled that colleges and universities receiving federal funds must allow military recruiters on campus. InsideHIgherEd.com calls the court's unanimous ruling a "slam-dunk rebuke to the nation's law schools," and The New York Times reports that Chief Justice Roberts' opinion takes the foundational illogic of law schools' position to task in resoundingly uncompromising terms:
In his opinion today, Chief Justice Roberts soundly rejected FAIR's assertion that the Solomon Amendment infringed on First Amendment free-speech rights."The Solomon Amendment neither limits what law schools may say nor requires them to say anything," he wrote. "Law schools remain free under the statute to express whatever views they may have on the military's congressionally mandated employment policy, all the while retaining eligibility for federal funds."
The Solomon Amendment pertains to conduct more than to speech, the chief justice wrote: "It affects what law schools must do -- afford equal access to military recruiters -- not what they may or may not say."
Chief Justice Roberts rejected the law schools' contention that teachers and students might equate the granting of access to recruiters to an endorsement of the military's views. He noted that previous Supreme Court rulings have recognized that high school students can appreciate the difference between speech that a school sponsors and speech that a school merely permits because it is required to do so under equal-access policies. "Surely students have not lost that ability by the time they get to law school," he wrote.
ACTA has been actively involved in opposing the law schools' case, and has issued the following press release congratulating the Court:
ACTA PRAISES SUPREME COURT DECISION UPHOLDING MILITARY RECRUITERS ON CAMPUS
Colleges and Universities Should Put Student and Public Interests Ahead of Politics
Washington, DC (March 6, 2006)--The Supreme Court decision upholding military recruiters on college and university campuses is a victory for students' right to think for themselves, the American Council of Trustees and Alumni said today.
"This decision puts an end to the blatant hypocrisy of institutions which deny military recruiters while accepting billions in federal funds," said ACTA president Anne Neal. "It's a sorry statement when it takes a Supreme Court decision to show why our colleges and universities need to give students basic information about possible careers and the defense of our country. Trustees should waste no time putting their institutions on record as welcoming military recruiters and respecting the right of students, as individuals educated to think for themselves, to make their own decisions, including supporting or opposing 'don't ask, don't tell.'"
In late 2005, ACTA released data documenting the extraordinary sums that higher education institutions receive from the federal government subject to the Solomon Amendment and launched a national campaign asking trustees to guarantee access to military recruiters on campus. In letters, ACTA called on trustees to ensure that students are able to make informed decisions about whether to pursue a military career, rather than hiding behind faculty and administrators' opposition to military recruiters on campus.
The Solomon Amendment, which requires colleges that take federal money to accommodate recruiters, was struck down last year in Delaware, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania by the Third Circuit Court of Appeals as violating the First Amendment rights of higher education institutions. Faculty and administrators at a number of elite universities--including Harvard, Yale, Stanford, and Columbia--had in the past prevented recruiting on campus. These institutions had argued that the government's "don't ask, don't tell" policy violates their anti-discrimination policies.
The Supreme Court rejected these arguments and concluded that the Solomon Amendment neither limits what law schools may say nor requires them to say anything.
Read about ACTA's October report here.
Posted by acta online at March 6, 2006 01:01 PM
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