8 to Zip For Military
by Elaine Donnelly

The United States Supreme Court has just issued a unanimous decision upholding the constitutionality of the Solomon Amendment. That law, enacted in 1994 and reaffirmed by Congress in the aftermath of 9/11, denies federal funds to colleges and universities that deny equal access to their campuses for military recruiters.

CMR applauds this commonsense ruling, which properly saw this as an issue of selective discrimination against military recruiters, not a matter of free speech. Colleges are free to deny access to military recruiters, but they cannot do so while simultaneously accepting federal money.

This is a great victory for those of us who support the all-volunteer force, and a reality check for activists who think they can impose harmful ideologies on the military by means of intimidation and deliberate discrimination.

The unanimous opinion in Rumsfeld v. FAIR, written by Chief Justice John Roberts, reaffirmed the long-standing principle of “deference” to the Congress in national defense policy matters, which was stated most clearly in Rostker v. Goldberg. That 1981 landmark decision upheld the constitutionality of male-only Selective Service registration, recognizing that “judicial deference…is at its apogee” when Congress legislates under its constitutional authority to raise and support armies.

The Supreme Court has issued an unequivocal opinion, which comes to the right decision for the right reasons. It is a welcome departure from some federal court rulings, which in the past have substituted a few justices’ opinions for those written into law by elected representatives of the people.

The Center for Military Readiness supported efforts by the late Rep. Gerald Solomon (R-NY) to write into law this simple condition on the privilege of receiving federal funds. You may recall that Rep. Solomon was a guest speaker at a Capitol Hill Conference on the Culture of the Military, which CMR hosted in October 1998.

We are pleased that our efforts since 1993 have contributed to this great victory, but we cannot afford to take anything for granted.

Elaine Donnelly is President of the Center for Military Readiness

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