Queer Law Students Want to Kick the Military Off Campus

For more information, please contact:
Chelsea HaleyNelson, USF Pride Law President/CQLSA
lonandchel [at] aol.com
(510) 459-7309

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Queer Law Students Want to Kick the Military Off Campus

Queer law student groups from UC Berkeley, Golden Gate University, UC Hastings, New College, Santa Clara and the University of San Francisco, terming themselves the Coalition of Queer Law Student Associations (CQLSA), are protesting the military recruitment at the 21st Annual Northern California Public Interest/Public Sector (PI/PS) Legal Careers Day. The event, an all-day career fair for public interest oriented law students hosted by the Public Interest Clearinghouse and nine Northern California law schools, is scheduled for Saturday, February 12th at UC Hasting College of the Law. The protest challenges the decision of organizers of PI/PS day to allow the military to recruit at the event despite the Third Circuit Court of Appeals recent ruling in Fair v. Rumsfeld.

Fair v. Rumsfeld challenged the Solomon Amendment, a federal statute that punishes Universities with a loss of federal grants and contracts if they exclude military recruiters from their campuses. Law schools have had in existence anti-discrimination policies which prohibit recruitment of students on campus by employers who discriminate on the basis of race, gender, disability or sexual orientation. Law schools have sought consistently to enforce this policy against the military which discriminates against lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transgender (LGBT) individuals in military service.

In November 2004, the Third Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the Solomon Amendment is unconstitutional because it violates the First Amendment. Specifically, based on the preliminary injunction record before it, the court held that it was unconstitutional for Congress to command that schools affirmatively assist military recruiters, or even to require schools to allow the military on campus to recruit. The Court ruled that the Solomon Amendment violates both a school’s right of expressive association and its right to be free from compelled speech under the First Amendment. The penalty, the loss of all federal money across the board, the Court said, is analyzed for First Amendment purposes as if it were a command. The case was sent back to the District Court with instructions to issue the requested injunction against the Solomon Amendment pending outcome of the case. The government has said that it will appeal the Third Circuit’s ruling to the U.S. Supreme Court.

The lawsuit challenging the Solomon Amendment was brought by the SALT, an association of 900 law professors, and FAIR, an association of 26 law schools and their faculties, whose state mission is to promote academic freedom and to support educational institutions as opposing discrimination. Incorporated in New Jersey in September 2003, FAIR was conceived by Kent Greenfield, a professor at Boston College of the Law, and originally formed to fill a vacuum created by the AALS’s refusal on institutional grounds to litigate against the Solomon Amendment. 18 law school faculties and 8 law schools as institutions have signed onto and participated in the recent suit against the Secretary of Defense, the Secretary of Education and others.

The Bay Area queer law student groups comprising CQLSA are protesting the decision of organizers of PI/PS Day to allow military recruiters at an event specifically designed for public interest and social justice minded law students. CQLSA claims that this decision makes the organizers complicit with the policies of the military which unjustly degrade members of the queer community and sacrifices the integrity of the law schools participating in PI/PS Day. Two law schools taking part in the protest, Golden Gate University and University of San Francisco, were also part of the Fair v. Rumsfeld suit.

The protest will be held between 10:00 a.m. and 12:00 p.m. at UC Hastings College of the Law on February 12, 205. Members of all local queer law student groups will participate. CQLSA is also forming a joint action plan to eliminate military recruitment at PI/PS Day and are garnering statements of support for their efforts from local bar associations, LGBT organizations and public interest law firms.