U.S. Can Withhold Funds From Schools That Bar Military Recruiters

Yale Law School continues its futile effort to bar military recruiters from the campus on one hand while holding out the other in expectation of receiving federal funds. The Solomon amendment states that the government can withhold those funds from schools that bar military recruiters, and the court rulings are not going in favor of the anti-military schools:

Yale Law School can be denied certain federal funding for barring military recruiters from its campus, a Manhattan federal appellate court has held.

Citing a 2006 U.S. Supreme Court decision finding that the government's policy of withholding money to schools that bar military recruiters does not violate the First Amendment, the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Monday reversed a Connecticut federal court judge's contrary opinion.

"Plaintiffs ... have no First Amendment claim that is not either lacking in merit or that has not already been rejected by the Supreme Court," 2nd Circuit Judge Rosemary S. Pooler said in a decision joined by 2nd Circuit Judge Reena Raggi in Burt v. Gates, 05-1732-cv. ....

At issue in the case is the Solomon Amendment, 10 U.S.C. § 983(b), which denies certain federal funding to an academic institution if even one portion of the institution does not allow military recruiters access to its campus.

Yale claims that because the military bars openly homosexual people from serving it violates their anti-discrimination policy and therefore they can ban recruiters from the campus. Not so.

Yale now has a choice. They can fund their own operations and bar anyone they want from the campus, or they can cooperate with the government and receive federal funding. I'm sure they'll probably continue to appeal this ruling, but it's not bound to succeed.