Case pits military against colleges

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/nation/3164705
Supreme Court to decide if schools can ban recruiters, yet keep funding
By STEPHEN HENDERSON
Knight Ridder Tribune News

WASHINGTON - The Supreme Court said Monday it would settle a pivotal battle over whether colleges can ban Pentagon recruiters from campuses without losing federal funds. The case pits free speech and academic freedom against the power of the purse and the need for a strong national defense.

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A coalition of 31 law schools says forcing them to accommodate military recruiters also forces them to endorse the Pentagon's discrimination against gays and lesbians, which is at odds with the colleges' anti-discrimination policies.

They say a 1994 law that threatens federal funding for colleges that ban military recruiters violates their rights to choose what ideas they support.

The Third Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia agreed with the colleges and declared the law unconstitutional.

But the government says the law, known popularly as the Solomon Amendment, is an essential tool for "effective recruitment to sustain an all-volunteer military, particularly at a time of war
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I can't wait to see who wins I bet the military!!!

you would expect no less of a bay area campus. They were arrested and had the choke hold used on them until they passed out./They applied pressure under the chin to a specific area. My son said they were forced to swallow some kind of pill but didn't know what it was. He didn't participate, but did get held up by it trying to get on campus.

Wow being a protestor is got new twists and turns!!!

the fatherland from the 9/11 attacks done by 19 Arab men on a budget of 400K? Yeah, nothing like those national defenders!

I can see both points of view.

If the feds are going to give them federal dollars, then I can see why they should have the right to promote the military.

But I also see why the military shouldn't be held to different standards than other groups are on campus...

I don't know about this one.

it's disheartening to see these strong arm tactics used. It's understandable to me now how some of my more liberal friends have been virulently anti-military. Though I haven't done genealogy, I have had family serve in WWII, Vietnam, and my father served in the Navy for 23 years (I grew up in it).

All of my immediate family, and a good portion of my extended family doesn't like the idea of anyone we know enlisting. Not w/ the chickenhawks at the helm.

Pure and simple. The Rustic idiots who want to murder and kill Rag Heads can head down to the local recruiting office and SIGN UP.

I watched a protest on TV recently (It wasn't Faux) where the Marine Contingent left the building when confronted by "DERISIVE CHANTING"

Which featured
nAH nAH nAH nAH HEY HEY HEY ---- GOOD BYE. For Once the Merchants of Death were not having fun. The Homophobes in the military can go to Hell.

LOL

But if the school takes that stance why can't feds flip them the bird and take their money back?

Is it the agriculture dept grant to produce a better corn crop?

--Is it the Health and Human services who are funding cancer research?

Or is it, like at Wisconsin, the defense dept researching Math concepts to build a better nuclear weapon trigger.

If its the latter, I doubt they will cut funding, no matter how shabbily the recruiters from bum fuck Appalachia are treated by the students IE "Hell No we won't GO"

that Congress has when they say to a school that we will give you some funds, but if want them you have to let recruiters on campus.

No one is forcing the school to take the money.

I stand for denying the killing arm of empire the use of our campuses for its adventures.

Opposing the military presence is, as the universities assert, simple enforcement of their anti-discrimination codes. It's hardly the campuses fault that the military has institutionalized hatred of gays and lesbians.

There's another reason for supporting the campuses. The military is keen to get its claws into economically vulnerable students; cf. the events at CUNY last month.

I can see why the campus refusenik position will threaten some middle class moderates. Measures that make it harder to "recruit" (read: dragoon) the poor also bring a draft one step closer. But the draft is going to have to be opposed in any case, and its likelihood is no reason to allow the military to strong-arm academia.

....particularly at a time of war.....

They don't have a right to do squat with it unless we approve.

They don't seem to be angry enough yet.
When the military wins, they will sabotage the recruiters.

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