The U.S. Supreme Court upheld a law regarding military recruiting on college campuses in a unanimous decision Monday. The law, called the Solomon Amendment, is facing a separate challenge from faculty of the Penn Law School.
The case was filed by the Forum for Academic and Institutional Rights, a group of law schools working together on the issue.
FAIR contended that the Solomon Amendment, which allows the government to restrict federal funding to universities that do not permit the military to recruit on campus, violated universities' First Amendment rights and was therefore unconstitutional.
Penn Law faculty are making the separate argument in their case, Burbank v. Rumsfeld, that the Law School is already giving the military equal access by allowing it to recruit through Career Services, as other employers do, and should not have to open up the campus itself to recruiters.
Penn Law professor Stephen Burbank, the lead plaintiff in that case, said before Monday's decision that the outcome of the FAIR case would not in itself determine the result of the one involving Penn, which is pending in a local district court.
He added at the time, however, that if FAIR were to lose its case -- as it has -- the Penn Law case might become more difficult to defend.
The Supreme Court ruling Monday overturned a ruling in favor of FAIR by the Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. Chief Justice John Roberts wrote the court's opinion. Justice Samuel Alito did not participate.
