Editorial: The price of military recruiting

Thursday, Dec. 8, 2005 | 7:22 a.m.

Although months away, a final U.S. Supreme Court decision regarding free speech rights and military recruiting on college campuses could have far-reaching funding implications for colleges and universities that choose to bar recruiters because of the military's anti-gay policies.

The Pentagon is appealing a 2004 ruling by the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia that favored a group of law schools that had challenged the 1996 Solomon Amendment. The law calls for allowing the federal government to deny funding to institutions of higher learning that bar military recruitment on campus.

The group of law schools, called the Forum for Academic Institutional Rights (FAIR), contended that the Solomon Amendment violated schools' rights to free speech and free association.

By allowing recruiters on campus, FAIR argued, it appeared the schools endorsed the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy that prohibits openly gay soliders from serving in the armed forces.

The schools' policies prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation, FAIR representatives have said, and allowing recruiters to promote the military, which condones such discrimination, is unconstitutional. The appellate court agreed and overturned the Solomon Amendment.

In arguments heard this week by the Supreme Court, justices seemed to favor the government's position that those who oppose the military's policies on gays are free to protest recruiters' presence and that federal funding can come with some strings attached.

"It doesn't insist that you do anything. It says that if you want our money, you have to let our recruiters on campus," Chief Justice John Roberts said, according to excerpts from Tuesday's proceeedings. "There's the right, in the Constitution, to raise a military."

Those representing FAIR say it's not fair for universities to have to choose between $35 billion in annual public funding or sending students the wrong message by appearing to endorse a system that discriminates based on sexual orientation.

We support the presence of military recruiters on campuses and applaud those schools that welcome them. But we oppose this heavy-handed federal law that, in effect, forces colleges and universities to violate their anti-discrimination policies.

Discrimination against homosexuals, which is wrong, may be legal for the military. But it is not so for civilian workplaces. Public funding should not be tied to endorsement of discriminatory policies.