“Late yesterday, New York University, along with a group of other respected research universities, filed an amicus curiae brief with the Supreme Court, asking the Court, in effect, to strike down the Solomon Amendment by upholding a November 2004 decision by the Third Circuit Court of Appeals.
“Separately, the NYU School of Law is a plaintiff in the matter as a member of the Forum for Academic and Institutional Rights (FAIR) coalition.
“In its filing, NYU and the other universities - Columbia, Cornell, Harvard, the University of Chicago, the University of Pennsylvania, and Yale - argued that the Solomon Amendment’s coercive nature, which forces universities to provide equal access to military recruiters despite policies that are discriminatory or face a cut-off of all federal funds, impinges on academic freedom and is unconstitutional.
“Long before it was the law anywhere, NYU put in place policies banning discrimination based on sexual orientation, and we offered partner benefits. We are not against the military, but we are against discrimination. Yet, in an utterly misguided effort to help with military recruiting, the Solomon Amendment egregiously and divisively pits two of our core principles - our commitment to non-discrimination and our commitment to scholarly research - against one another.
“It is our hope that the Supreme Court upholds the finding of the Court of Appeals, rules against the government, and does away with the Solomon Amendment.”