Funding Withheld for Schools Challenging "Don't Ask, Don't Tell"

WASHINGTON, DC (U.S. Newswire) -- Yale Daily News reports the Department of Defense has withheld federal funding for three law schools under the federal law known as the Solomon Amendment. New York Law School, Vermont Law School and William Mitchell College of Law in St. Paul, Minn., have been targeted under Solomon, according to the News.

The Solomon Amendment prohibits schools receiving federal funds from denying the military entry to campuses, access to students on campus and access to student recruiting information. The law, passed by Congress in 1996, is used to punish schools that prevent military recruiters full access to students because of the government's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" ban on lesbian, gay and bisexual personnel. Last year, the Third Circuit Court of Appeals ruled the law unconstitutional, finding that it violated universities' free speech rights by forcing them to violate non-discrimination policies that include sexual orientation. An appeal of that case, FAIR v. Rumsfeld, will be heard by the U.S. Supreme Court in December. FAIR is a coalition of 24 law schools challenging the law in court.

"Colleges and universities should not be forced to compromise their policies of equal opportunity in order to receive federal funding," said C. Dixon Osburn, executive director of Servicemembers Legal Defense Network (SLDN) which filed an amicus brief in the Third Circuit case. "It is the military's policy of discrimination, and not universities' attempts to treat all students fairly, that should change. The armed forces should play by the same rule as all other employers seeking access to students: no discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation."

Pentagon spokeswoman Lt. Col. Ellen Krenke told the News the three law schools were targeted because they did not provide a written policy declaring that they do not have a policy or practice of denying the military access to campus. "New York Law School officials found out earlier this month from the Pentagon that federal funding would be withheld if they did not allow recruiters back on their campus," the News reported.