Should Law Schools Bar Student Organizations from Inviting the Military to Campus for Recruitment Purposes?

The military's discrimination against gays combined with the Solomon Amendment that forces schools to allow equal access to military recruiters in violation of their non-discrimination policies, upheld by the Supreme Court under constitutional challenge in FAIR v. Rumsfeld, 126 S.Ct. 1297 (2006), has created many difficulties for law schools. The law schools are torn between protecting their gay students from discrimination and enforcing their non-discrimination policy and violating the Solomon Amendment and thus risking the loss of substantial federal funding. In September 2006, the George Washington Law School was presented with a question of first impression. To what extent should student organizations be bound by the regulations that govern the GW placement office/Career Development Office regarding military recruitment? In other words, should/must the school allow student organizations to invite the military to employment related functions? This article discusses the legal and policy implications of this question after FAIR v. Rumsfeld. This paper was prepared for the Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Section's panel entitled: quot;Accepting the Court's Invitationquot; at the American Association of Law School's Annual Conference, Washington D.C., January 3, 2007