Law schools like Penn's are being pulled in two different directions over their non-discrimination policies.
The Association of American Law Schools forbids its member institutions from letting any employers who discriminate based on sexual orientation recruit on their campuses in almost every case.
But some say a Supreme Court ruling will bring law schools into conflict with this policy.
Earlier this month, the court upheld the Solomon Amendment, which requires schools to admit military recruiters or risk losing federal funding.
The military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy discriminates against gays, which leaves schools with a conundrum -- they can either meet the military's requirement or the AALS mandate.
In recognition of the tight spot that schools are forced into, the AALS does not ask schools to violate the Supreme Court ruling -- only to protest it.
AALS Deputy Director Elizabeth Patterson said her organization requires member institutions to carry out "ameliorating" activities that object to forced military recruitment on their campuses.
Since law schools cannot afford to sacrifice federal funding, Patterson said, the AALS says the schools can permit military recruiting, as long as they also make it clear that doing so is inconsistent with their own policies.
Patterson said a law school's amelioration activities are a factor considered when the schools undergo membership review every seven years.
An AALS official who evaluates adherence to the amelioration policy is part of the team from the American Bar Association that visits schools to conduct re-accreditation checks.
AALS reporters accompany Bar Association accreditors, but the two organizations are independent.
The group's policy of amelioration has existed since 1997, a year after the Solomon Amendment was first passed.
No member institution has ever been expelled from the AALS for inadequate amelioration activities, Patterson said.
The AALS currently has 168 member schools, including Penn Law.
Diane Downs -- Penn Law's associate dean for Career Planning and Placement --said that the mere existence of the AALS's policy of non-discrimination supported some law schools' struggle to overturn the Solomon Amendment.
"The fact that an ... authority does say that it is important not to discriminate [on the basis of sexual orientation] gives us some credibility when we say that to an employer," she said.
Patterson said that the military is the only employer granted an exception to the AALS's non-discrimination policy.
As a result, law schools have been dealing with "this particular pinch," as Downs said, since the Solomon Amendment was written in 1996.
In recent years, amelioration has taken many forms, according to Downs.
The Law School has supported students who protested the military's presence on campus with rallies and marches. It also organized panels in which speakers discussed how the government's policy presented a problem for the school.
Lambda Law Vice President David Castleman, a third-year Law student, said that his group -- an gay-interest organization for law students -- participates actively in amelioration and receives significant support from Penn Law.
"What's important is not that the Law School does anything itself, but that it facilitates the ability of Lambda to disseminate its message," he said.
