Military Recruiters on Campus

A federal appeals court in Philadelphia today ruled that universities can bar military recruiters from their campuses without risking the loss of federal funding. The suit, which was filed by a group of law schools and legal scholars, stemmed from the concern that allowing military recruiters on university campuses would be condoning discrimination because of the military's policy of excluding gays and lesbians from service. In a delicious irony, the case used by the appeals court as precedent for their ruling was the 2000 case in which the Supreme Court ruled that the Boy Scouts of America have the right under the First Amendment to exclude gay men from scoutmaster positions--the reasoning being that if the Boy Scouts (or any private organization) have the right to bar homosexuals from their organization because they find homosexuality immoral, then universities have the right to bar military recruiters from their campuses if they find that barring gays and lesbians from military service is discrimination, and thus immoral.