A federal appeals court is barring the government from enforcing a law based on its potential to spur discrimination.
It's about time.
Under the law in question - the Solomon Amendment - the U.S. government could withhold funds to public universities that denied access to military recruiters because of the Pentagon's "don't ask, don't tell" policy.
So far, the U.S. Department of Justice has criticized the ruling, saying in a written statement, "the United States continues to believe the Solomon Amendment is constitutional."
Ironically, the federal appeals court based its ruling on a U.S. Supreme Court decision allowing the Boy Scouts of America to ban gays from becoming troop leaders or scouts. The two majority judges argued that, under the First Amendment, colleges could enact an opposite policy to keep groups that discriminate because of sexual orientation off their campuses.
The government's logic goes as follows: Congress should ban funds to universities which discriminate and hinder military recruiters from getting to the people who really want to join up.
Discrimination? Should Congress block funds to West Point for discriminating against the openly homosexual? You can bet they're not going to.
We agree with a university's First Amendment right to speak out, especially against discriminatory policies in the U.S. military. Isolating openly gay people from the military service is an anachronistic, barbaric and unnecessary practice.
Should universities be allowed to kick recruiters out?
It's a tough answer.
Speaking out against horrible policies is one thing, but blocking recruiters from campus tramples on the rights of students looking to join the military. If ever an American citizen feels the need to serve in the military, there should be the proper access to recruiters or ROTC programs needed to enlist.
Disagreements with government policies are healthy, but universities need to focus on speaking out, rather than depriving military hopefuls of their due. For however wrong the military's policy on gays might be colleges shouldn't block recruiters completely.
Individual recruiters are just doing their job. There's a big difference between blocking solicitors from a college campus and kicking out the military.
But the problem that presents itself involves what the court actually decided. The ruling was on our government banning funds to public universities which have spoken out against it.
Stripped down to that basic idea, we can't help but agree with Monday's ruling, even if we can't agree with the actions of the individual universities. Under no circumstances should the U.S. government ever be allowed to punish an organization, well within its rights of free speech, by cutting funding.
It's time for the U.S. government to accept the spirit behind the Solomon Amendment's repeal. Judges bound by legal precedent need a consistent legal standard by which to measure their decisions. In this case, that high standard for government accountability comes directly from the First Amendment, and that amendment beats out the Solomon Amendment hands down.
