A Stitch in Haste

To review: Under the Solomon Amendment, 10 U.S.C. 983, colleges and universities must grant military recruiters the same access as any other employer, or else risk losing all their federal funding. The threat applies to the entire institution, even if only one unit (e.g., the law school) attempts to bar military recruiters over its facially discriminatory "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy barring gays from serving in uniform.

A major lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the Solomon Amendment, Rumsfeld v. FAIR, will be argued before the Supreme Court in its upcoming term.

For whatever reason (i.e., Iraq), the military is not waiting for the final resolution of Rumsfeld v. FAIR and has a launched a pre-emptive strike against three law schools.

The interesting thing about this iteration of the funding threat is which schools the military is targeting — not Harvard, Yale or any other large, famous or rich law school, but three relatively small and obscure schools:

The Defense Department last week said that New York Law School is ineligible for federal funding because of the difficulties JAG recruiters have encountered trying to contact students on the school's campus, located in Manhattan. Military officials have also deemed Vermont Law School in South Royalton, Vt., and William Mitchell College of Law in St. Paul, Minn., ineligible for federal funds.
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Kent Greenfield, a Boston College law professor and president of the Forum for Academic and Institutional Rights, a mostly anonymous coalition of law schools, said he thinks the Pentagon's enforcement of the law against the smaller schools may be a publicity stunt.

"They can pick off the Vermonts and William Mitchells of the world, and nobody will make a fuss," Greenfield told Inside Higher Ed, an online higher education news journal. "But I think the military knows better than to pick that fight [with Harvard]."

Indeed. Whatever happened to "pick on somebody your own size"? No pun intended, but the military shouldn't discriminate in its discrimination — either enforce Solomon or don't. But why replace what the military claims is a "reasoned" policy with one of petty bullying? It makes no sense — just like Don't Ask, Don't Tell makes no sense.

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Meanwhile, that shot across the law school bow has been heard by at least one objecting institution:

Harvard Law School will actively cooperate with military recruiters this fall, despite the Pentagon's refusal to sign the school's nondiscrimination pledge, Dean Elena Kagan announced this evening.
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"This decision is prudent given the potential consequences to the University’s research and other activities," [Harvard president Lawrence H. Summers] said.

The trustees and administration of Harvard and the other anti-DADT schools of course have a fiduciary duty not to endanger their federal funding, so one cannot summarily condemn their capitulation.

In any case, one wonders just how desperate the military must be at this point if it can't go one or two more semesters without on-campus access in order to recruit JAGs.

More thoughts at FaerieWizard.