Law Schools Seek to Regain Ability to Bar Military Recruiters

[Judi Lynn]

September 20, 2003


Law Schools Seek to Regain Ability to Bar Military Recruiters
By SAM DILLON


An organization of law schools and a group representing hundreds of legal scholars sued the Department of Defense and five other federal agencies yesterday, seeking to help universities and colleges that want to keep military recruiters off their campuses because of the department's "don't ask, don't tell" policy on gay men and lesbians.

The suit challenges the constitutionality of a federal law that punishes universities with loss of some federal money if they use their antidiscrimination policies to exclude military recruiters.

It follows a successful campaign by the Defense Department to force some of the nation's most prestigious law schools to allow military recruiters on campus. In recent years, the department has advised Harvard, Yale, Columbia and 20 other universities that they could lose federal aid if they did not allow recruiters at their law schools. For some universities, the dispute put at risk hundreds of millions of dollars for research on everything from weapons systems to the humanities.

By this past summer, "every law school whose institution receives federal funds caved to the military's demands," according to the complaint filed yesterday in Newark before Judge John C. Lifland. (snip/...)

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/09/20/education/20LAW.html?th

[liberalnurse]

1. At this stage of a graduate student's life, I

think they will be able to handle a recruiter. They should be quite capable of making life decisions at that time.

It would be nice if they were offered tuition reimbursement if they enlist. It could ease the burden on parents retirement funds. Not to project a guilt trip onto the student as they can make an informed decision.

[carpetbagger]

2. 500B deficit, War W/o End, 1984, no jobs. Like I care about this.

If we get another four years of The Boy Who Cried Wolf (R-TX), the DOD will once again get their soldiers without having to recruit, since they won't exactly have a good package of goods to sell.