The U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments on Tuesday about whether it should overturn a law allowing the federal government to withhold grants from universities whose law schools bar military recruiters from their campuses. Opponents of campus recruiting argue that that (take a breath) just because their schools accept federal money does not give the federal government the right to withhold that money if the schools discriminate against the federal government's military recruiters because those recruiters discriminate against gays.
Interestingly, the anti-recruiters and their gay activist allies cite the Supreme Court's ruling in Boy Scouts vs. Dale (which they strongly condemned at the time), holding that a private organization has the right to exclude those deemed contrary to the organization's values. Another case cited allowed organizers of a St. Patrick's Day parade to exclude a gay-identified contingent.
Reportedly, even some of the liberal justices seem dubious of the claim that the federal government could not chose to withhold its grants, although the libertarian Cato Institute argues that expressive rights shouldn't be curtailed by a limited degree of government support, for either Harvard, the Boy Scouts, or St. Patraick's Day organizers.
But regardless of the merits of the legal arguments, gay opposition to military recruiting is awful politics, sending a message that gays seek to weaken the military during a time of war.
I can't think of a less effective way to achieve an end to the military's anti-gay ban. And I have no doubt that officers drawn from Harvard, Yale and other elite universities (particularly their law schools) would be the most likely to move the military to a more accepting position. But then, many who oppose recruitment on campus, I firmly believe, are using the gay angle as a pretext-if the military accepted gay recruits, they'd still be fighting against recruitment because they see Iraq as Vietnam and America as the enemy of world peace and oppressor of third-world peoples. And gay activists who don't share those leftwing views have none the less proved themselves willing dupes for that cause.
Update: George Will
notes, correctly, that "Schools eager to ban military
recruiters from a few hours of access to students who want to meet
them have faculties that expose students to a one-sided bombardment
of political views." And other liberal campus
hypocrisies.