|
« AAUP Homepage
|
Court Rules for Faculty in Military Recruiting Case
By Ann Springer
In January, a federal district judge ruled in favor of Yale Law School faculty who challenged the Solomon Amendment, a federal statute that punishes universities with a loss of federal funding if they, or any of their schools or components, exclude military recruiters from campus. Until the amendment took effect, Yale Law School, like many other law schools, restricted military recruiters from participating in its recruitment programs because of policies prohibiting any employer who discriminates on the basis of sexual orientation from participating.
In the case, Burt et al. v. Rumsfeld, the law faculty argued that by compelling the law school to aid the military's recruiting efforts by allowing the military's participation in the recruiting program, the Solomon Amendment violates the faculty's First Amendment rights of freedom of speech and freedom of association. The AAUP filed an amicus brief in support of the faculty, arguing that the Solomon Amendment violates the First Amendment and concepts of academic freedom and shared governance by using federal funds to coerce compliance with a particular message, and by forcing law schools and their faculty to abandon pedagogical principles of how to teach lessons of ethics, justice, and civil rights. The brief is available.
Judge Janet Hall of the United States District Court for the District of Connecticut agreed with the faculty that the amendment is unconstitutional and violates faculty members' First Amendment rights to expression and freedom of association. In a lengthy opinion granting summary judgment to the faculty, she found that the Solomon Amendment imposed unconstitutional conditions upon the receipt of federal funds.
Other cases involving the Solomon Amendment continue to work their way through the courts. In November, the Third Circuit issued a 2 to 1 decision for the faculty in FAIR v. Rumsfeld, a challenge to the Solomon Amendment brought by a coalition of faculty at law schools nationwide. The decision granted the faculty's request for an injunction against the enforcement of the Solomon Amendment, and concluded that "the Solomon Amendment violates the First Amendment by impeding the law schools' rights of expressive association and by compelling them to assist in the expressive act of recruiting." The case is being appealed to the Supreme Court. Another case, Burbank v. Rumsfeld, brought by faculty at the University of Pennsylvania, is on hold in the District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania pending action by the Supreme Court in the FAIR case. The AAUP filed amicus briefs in both cases.
|