Originally published February 4 2006
Law schools challenge amendment that requires them to allow military recruiters on campus to receive federal funding
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
The Supreme Court is now hearing a case brought by several prominent U.S. law schools against the Pentagon, and reports after the opening arguments suggest that the Supreme Court is skeptical of the case, which seeks to ban military recruiters from college campuses.
Law schools faced tough questioning Tuesday as the Supreme Court considered how much assistance the schools must provide military recruiters.
Justices showed sympathy for the Pentagon and pronounced skepticism over how the schools handle the military's alleged anti-gay bias.
Several all but endorsed the law that cuts off federal funding if the military recruiters don't get equal campus access.
The law schools are challenging the so-called Solomon Amendment, an 11-year-old law initially named for a late New York congressman and later pushed by California Republican Richard Pombo.
Boston College Law School, for one, allowed recruiters on campus but kept the military's brochures in the library instead of the career services center.
With the federal government currently providing universities $35 billion annually, the schools claim a threatened funding cutoff effectively squelches their speech.
"The schools are entitled to make their own decisions about what messages they will disseminate," argued E. Joshua Rosenkranz, attorney for the Forum for Academic and Institutional Rights.
The Forum for Academic and Institutional Rights includes faculty members from 36 public and private law schools, including Stanford, the University of San Francisco and the University of Minnesota.
The notion that law school students will assume the schools share the Pentagon's message drew particular criticism.
"Nobody thinks that this law school is speaking through those employers who come onto its campus for recruitment," Roberts said.
Rosenkranz said career services workers end up sending e-mails and distributing literature on the Pentagon's behalf.
"It seems to me quite a simple matter for the law schools to have a disclaimer on all of their e-mails and advertisements that say the law school does not approve, and in fact, disapproves of the policies of some of the employers who you will meet," Justice Anthony Kennedy said.
All content posted on this site is commentary or opinion and is protected under Free Speech. Truth Publishing LLC takes sole responsibility for all content. Truth Publishing sells no hard products and earns no money from the recommendation of products. NaturalNews.com is presented for educational and commentary purposes only and should not be construed as professional advice from any licensed practitioner. Truth Publishing assumes no responsibility for the use or misuse of this material. For the full terms of usage of this material, visit www.NaturalNews.com/terms.shtml