The 1996 Solomon Amendment is the popular name of 10 U.S.C. § 983, a United States federal law that allows the Secretary of Defense to deny federal grants (including research grants) to institutions of higher education if they prohibit or prevent ROTC or military recruitment on campus. Note that the amendment includes recruiting by the United States Coast Guard despite the fact that the Coast Guard is a component of the Department of Homeland Security (Pub. L. 107-296).

Named for Congressman Gerald B.H. Solomon, the constitutionality of the Solomon Amendment was questioned in Rumsfeld v. FAIR. On March 6 2006, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld this law in a unanimous decision ^*. Chief Justice John Roberts wrote "A military recruiter's mere presence on campus does not violate a law school's right to associate, regardless of how repugnant the law school considers the recruiter's message".

In 2004, the U.S. Third Circuit Court of Appeals found for the Forum for Academic and Institutional Rights, a group representing law schools, led by scholars from Boston College Law School, opposed to the presence of military recruiters on campus. Many law schools oppose military recruiters on campus because they view it as placing their imprimatur on the military's "Don't ask, don't tell" policy regarding homosexuals. In the fall of 2005, three institutions (Vermont Law School, New York Law School, and William Mitchell College of Law) were barred from receipt of federal funds because they do not allow military recruiting on campus.

The Association of American Law Schools, the principal consortium of United States law schools, requires that all of its member institutions establish a policy prohibiting discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, and additionally demands that member schools require the same policy of any employer to which it grants access for employment. AALS has excused its members from enforcing this policy against the military while it has challenged the Solomon Amendment, as the law would deny federal funding to the parent institution of a law school that blocks access to the military, not just to the law school itself.

In addition to law schools and gay rights organizations, the Solomon Amendment has come under fire from anti-war and counter-recruitment organizations, many of which argue that military recruiters should be banned from schools for reasons that extend beyond "Don't ask, don't tell." Commonly-cited justifications include what are claimed to be deceptive recruiting practices, as well as the war in Iraq. On December 6 2005, as the Supreme Court was hearing oral arguments in the Rumsfeld v. FAIR case, the Campus Antiwar Network held a nationally-coordinated set of student protests urging the Court to find for FAIR.

Related public law exempts federal grants solely for financial aid as well as for administrative costs for such financial aid from this law (Pub L. 106-79 Sec. 8120). The Solomon amendment provides an exception for any institution with "a longstanding policy of pacifism based on historical religious affiliation." S.983(c)(2)

External links

• Advocates for Yale ROTC article
• Boston College Law School Coalition for Equality
• U.S. Code from FindLaw
• Georgetown anti-Solomon Amendment information
• Solomon Amendment compliance from American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers

United States federal law | Military of the United States | Education in the United States