Justice Department to Seek Supreme Court Review of Decision Allowing Bans on Military Recruiters
http://chronicle.com/prm/daily/2005/01/2005011701n.htm(You have to be a subscriber to pull up the entire article) From The Chronicle of Higher Education: 1.17.05
By ANDREA L. FOSTER
The Justice Department plans to ask the U.S. Supreme Court to strike down a lower-court ruling that would allow colleges to restrict military recruiting on campuses without risking the loss of federal money.
The ruling, by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, in Philadelphia, sided with an association of law schools, among other plaintiffs, that said the schools have a First Amendment right to exclude recruiters whose hiring practices discriminate against gay men and lesbians (The Chronicle, December 10, 2004). The November decision overturned a district-court ruling that upheld the so-called Solomon Amendment. That law allows the government to withhold defense-related money from colleges that limit the activities of military recruiters.
The appellate court's decision, by a three-judge panel, was a victory for many colleges that disliked the Solomon Amendment but had gone along with it to avoid the potential loss of hundreds of millions of dollars a year.
The lawsuit was filed by the Forum for Academic and Institutional Rights, or FAIR, an association of 25 law schools, along with the Society of American Law Teachers, the Coalition for Equality, the Rutgers Gay and Lesbian Caucus, and several individual students and professors. The appellate panel ruled, 2 to 1, in favor of the plaintiffs on November 29.
E. Joshua Rosenkranz, a lawyer in New York City who represents the law schools and others in the case, said Sunday that the Justice Department had revealed its intention to appeal the case to the Supreme Court on Friday. That day the department filed documents with the appeals court, asking it to hold off enforcing the effective nullification of the Solomon Amendment until the Supreme Court decides whether to take the case.
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