Veterans' organizations at three universities filed an amicus brief with the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Tuesday, asking the court to dismiss a lawsuit aimed at prohibiting military recruitment on law school campuses across the country.
Forbidding the U.S. Department of Defense from recruiting at law schools would have "a negative effect on the military's ability to train its forces on the laws of war," said Phillip Carter, chairman of UCLA School of Law Veterans Society, which filed the brief along with Washburn University Veterans' Law Association and the College of William & Mary School of Law Military Law Society. It would also inhibit the military's access to legal representation, Carter said.
The Forum for Academic and Institutional Rights, an organization comprised of universities that filed the lawsuit against the Department of Defense in September 2003, is challenging the Solomon Amendment, a 1996 law that conditions awarding federal funding to universities on campus access for military recruiters.
FAIR claims the law violates their First Amendment right to protest the Defense Department's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell Policy." The law school campuses had protested the policy by refusing to allow the military on campus. The Solomon Amendment threatened to take away federal money from protesting campuses, and they were forced to open their schools to military recruiters.
Late last year, a trial judge denied FAIR's request for a preliminary injunction against enforcement of the law.
The recruiters should not be removed simply for abiding by the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy mandated by federal law and deemed constitutional by courts, Carter said.
Carter said law students confronted with a tight job market will be at a disadvantage if their options are even more limited by restricting the military from campus. He also said military organizations on campus are important to veterans enrolled in law school.
Howard Bashman, a Philadelphia-based appellate lawyer who filed the amicus brief on behalf of the student veteran organizations, said he is confident the court will rule in their favor.
Bashman said oral arguments in the case could be held as early as May, with a decision in the following three to nine months.
A representative of FAIR could not be reached for comment Wednesday.
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