Colleges Banning Military Recruiters Must Forfeit Grants
Terry Everett, February 14, 2005
The U.S. House of Representatives recently struck a blow for free speech and fairness as it voted overwhelmingly to deny Federal funds to American colleges and universities that limit military recruiter access on their campuses. The matter, which now goes to the U.S. Senate, is far from over and will ultimately be settled in the U.S. Supreme Court.
As strange as it may sound, a number of America's law schools have declared war on the U.S. military by restricting the recruitment of their students on school grounds. Representatives of the military service branches are not allowed equal access to these campuses, their students, or their school directories as their commercial employer counterparts. Why, do you ask? Ironically, because these schools claim that the military's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy regarding gays in the armed services violates free speech.
It is the height of hypocrisy for these law universities to essentially ban a form of speech on campus under the guise of protecting another. And the irony doesn't end there. As the Wall Street Journal recently put it, "...the same liberals who object that the military includes too many lower-class kids won't let military recruiters near the schools that contain students who will soon join the upper class elite."
The military needs access to America's schools to ensure adequate recruitment numbers. If a number of law colleges and universities, including Georgetown and Yale, don't want military recruiters on campus then they should be prepared to accept the consequences and lose access to Federal funds. Congress has already voted that schools should not be able to take certain Federal money while snubbing their collective noses at military recruiters.
In 1994, Congress passed the "Solomon Amendment" to the Defense Authorization Act. The amendment denied Department of Defense funds to colleges and universities that prohibited military recruiter access. The law was named for the late New York congressman and Echo, Alabama native Gerald Solomon who sponsored the legislation. Solomon, a former Marine, was a close friend of mine when he served in the U.S. House and he believed very strongly that the tradition of military service should be protected. Since the enactment of the Solomon Amendment, Congress has added other Federal funds to the list of those denied to colleges and universities banning recruiters.
Not surprisingly, these schools have challenged the Solomon Amendment, wanting taxpayer-provided grants but not wanting to be part of supporting America's military. In 2004, a U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit in New Jersey agreed and struck down the Solomon Amendment - ironically on the pretext that it violated these schools' First Amendment rights of free speech. The U.S. Government has appealed the ruling to the U.S. Supreme Court.
On February 2, the U.S. House passed by a 327 to 14 margin H. Con. Res 36 which reaffirmed the U.S. House's support for the Solomon Amendment and called on the Federal Government to aggressively challenge any decision impending or prohibiting the operation of the law. The bill was offered by U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Anniston.
I was pleased to stand with Congressman Gerald Solomon in 1994 and I continue to support denying Federal funds to those campuses which deny the military. I am hopeful that the U.S. Supreme Court will ultimately stand behind free speech and fairness by upholding the Solomon Amendment.
Congressman Terry Everett, a Republican, represents Alabama's Second Congressional District, which includes the state capitol, Montgomery.
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