12/05/2005
The Supreme Court will hear its first gay rights-related case this week under Chief Justice John Roberts. In question is whether or not universities must accept the presence of military recruiters on campus even if the military's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy violates the school's anti-discrimination policies. The government contends that if it provides financial assistance to a university, military recruiters should be allowed there and has withheld funding for universities based on these rules which are stipulated in the Solomon Amendment, passed in 1994. After arguments are heard on Tuesday, the Court will immediately release audio tapes of the proceedings.
Posted 9:22 AM EST by Andy Towle in Elsewhere | Permalink
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I think that if the FAIR academic alliance wins there will be very good immediate benefits (especially for me and fellow classmates who attend a law school that has banned the military and any other discriminatory legal employers for over 2 decades); but the long-term effects of a victory are troublesome. Such long-term effects are the reliance on Dale v. Boy Scouts, 530 US 640 (2000) and the negative effects it could have on anti-discrimination laws such as Title VII.
Posted by: Matt | Dec 5, 2005 11:44:19 AM
I'm not convinced this is a "gay rights" case. Certainly Don't Ask Don't Tell needs to be removed, but in the meantime I think the job of recruiting the best and the brightest young people we have into the US military is an urgent enough goal that recruiters belong on campus. No one is forcing students to join the military, they are simply there to lay out their case and try to attract recruits. There's nothing to stop an enterprising gay campus group from setting up tables nearby to lay out our case for removing the idiotic DADT policy. Seems more like a free speech issue than a gay rights one to me.
Posted by: Aatom | Dec 6, 2005 1:42:13 PM