Mr. STEARNS. Mr. Speaker, on Monday, the Supreme Court unanimously upheld a Federal law ensuring that colleges and universities who receive Federal funds permit open access for military recruiting on their campus. This ruling will allow the United States military to recruit the best and the brightest this Nation has to offer and will also greatly enhance our national security. I commend the Supreme Court for upholding this law.
This issue is of particular interest to me. I attended college on an Air Force ROTC scholarship and know firsthand the importance of the Armed Forces. Therefore, in order for the United States to win the global war on terrorism, the Armed Forces need access to the highest caliber of people, and that is why we must ensure equal access for military recruiters.
In 1996, Congress enacted a provision of law that came to be known as the Solomon amendment. This provision is named for our former colleague from New York and former Rules Committee chairman, the late Jerry Solomon. This provision provides for the Secretary of Defense to deny Federal funding to colleges and universities if they do not provide military recruiters entry to campuses and access to students that is at least equal in quality and scope to that provided to any other employer.
The Solomon amendment was made necessary when a number of universities began restricting the access of military recruiters because of disagreement with certain military policies, such as the military's ``don't ask, don't tell'' policy.
Mr. Speaker, I will include the entire list of these universities in the RECORD.
Monday's ruling stems from a challenge from a group of law schools on the constitutionality of the Solomon amendment. A number of universities are denying equal access to military recruiters in protest of the ``don't ask, don't tell'' policy. Last year, I had an amendment on the floor that was patterned after the Solomon amendment, and it also passed.
Mr. Speaker, some of the universities who are denying equal access to military recruiters, are also receiving millions and millions of hardworking Americans' tax dollars every year in terms of research dollars and other things.
Harvard Law School, for example, allowed military recruiters to interview students at the offices of its Veterans Association, but did not use its open personnel to set up the interviews as it did for other recruiters. In the wake of the Supreme Court hearing last fall, Harvard has reversed its decision and now plans to fully cooperate with the military recruiters.
Another example is Yale Law School, who had been letting recruiters use a room to meet with students, but had not been helping to arrange the interviews, as they did with other recruiters. These universities allow IBM, General Electric and other corporations full access, but not the military.
Equal access for military recruiters is an urgent issue. With the U.S. engaged in the global war on terrorism, it is more important than ever for the Armed Forces to recruit high-quality, well-qualified and well-trained personnel. This is why it is so important that the Supreme Court made such a strong statement in support of full and equal access to military recruiters on campus.
Chief Justice John Roberts, who wrote for the courts, said that the Solomon amendment ``neither limits what law schools may say nor requires them to say anything. Law schools remain free under the statute to express whatever views they may have on the military's congressionally mandated employment policy. Nothing about recruiting suggests that the law schools agree with any speech by recruiters, and nothing in the Solomon amendment restricts what the law schools may say about the military's policies.''
The Court went on to say that the law regulates conduct, not speech, and the hosting of recruiters is not expressive conduct that sends out a message as a former protest.
Mr. Speaker, so in conclusion, once again, I commend the Supreme Court for unanimously upholding the Solomon amendment. As the U.S. is engaged in the global war on terrorism, it is more vital than ever to our national [Page: H574] security that the United States Armed Forces have access to recruit the best people to serve in this country.
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