Another Battle Won

Chief Justice John Roberts made his presence known today by leading the court to a unanimous decision (8-0 since Judge Alito was not yet confirmed to the court when arguments were heard)in the case Rumsfeld v. Forum for Academic and Institutional Rights. The court held that it is not unconstitutional to withold federal funding from universities that do not allow recruiters on campus.

Roberts wrote:

When law schools began restricting the access of military recruiters to their students because of disagreement with the Government’s policy on homosexuals in the military, Congress responded by enacting the Solomon Amendment. See 10 U. S. C. A. §983 (Supp. 2005). That provision specifies that if any part of an institution of higher education denies military recruiters access equal to that provided other recruiters, the entire institution would lose certain federal funds. The law schools responded by suing, alleging that the Solomon Amendment infringed their First Amendment freedoms of speech and association. The District Court disagreed but was reversed by a divided panel of the Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, which ordered the District Court to enter a preliminary injunction against enforcement of the Solomon Amendment. We granted certiorari.

I am no lawyer and don't pretend to play one on this blog, so here's the opinion of people much smarter than me: James Taranto, I Am a Conservative, Mark Noel Don Surber and lefty opinion from Amanda-Mary and Kip at A Stitch in Haste.

Update: Kip--who I linked to above--is a bit put out that I referred to him as a "lefty". He labeled me an "utterly silly person" . His site proclaims him a "libertarian". I disagree but judge for yourself. I think Kip believes himself to be a libertarian because liberal is not in his lexicon, but he fits the description of one in my book.