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.
History
Named for Representative Gerald B. H. Solomon, this Solomon Amendment was first passed in 1994. (In the 1980's, Rep. Solomon sponsored an earlier series of "Solomon Amendments" that condition eligibility for Federal financial aid for higher education and job training, Federal government employment, and other Federal benefits on certification by the individual that they either had registered with the Selective Service System or were not required to register. In 2009, one of these Solomon Amendments was held to constitute an unconstitutional "bill of attainder" as applied to men denied Federal government employment and too old to be allowed to cure their ineligibility by registering.) It was revised in later years, most importantly in 1999, when Rep. Barney Frank pushed through an exemption for federal money used for financial aid, and in 2001, when alterations pushed by the Republican leadership on the House Armed Services Committee made it so that an entire university would lose its federal funding if any of its schools blocked access to recruiters. This alteration significantly strengthened the act, as the military had sought access mostly to law schools, which receive little in federal money, unlike medical schools, which are not usually targeted by recruiters. The amendment does provide an exception for any institution with "a longstanding policy of pacifism based on historical religious affiliation."
About the Law
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 includes recruiting by the Coast Guard despite its being a part of the Department of Homeland Security during peacetime (Pub. L. 107-296).
Constitutional Challenge
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.
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 Professor Kent Greenfield of 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, a policy that they believe conflicts with their non-discrimination policies.
The suit then proceeded to the Supreme Court. In Rumsfeld v. FAIR, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld this law in a unanimous decision [1] on March 6, 2006. Chief Justice John Roberts, writing for the majority, 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".
At least two institutions (Vermont Law School, and William Mitchell College of Law) have declined to allow military recruiting on campus, and thus, federal funds as well. It should be noted that these schools receive little in way of federal funds compared to large research universities. Harvard University, for example, receives $400 million per year in federal funding.
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