Big Dogs Weblog

The ACLU And Something For Nothing

by Big Dog on Dec 8, 2005 at 18:51 Political

I was thinking about not paying for my house. I have an agreement with the mortgage company to pay them the money that I borrowed to pay for it but I think the ACLU has made it clear that I should not have to do anything for the money someone else is lending me. Well, they actually think that colleges should not have to do something for the money that the government GIVES them. The ACLU is involved in a case that will be argued before the Supreme Court; a case that involves colleges allowing military recruiters on the campus.

Many law schools around the country do not allow recruiters from any company that “discriminates” against gays. The military, thanks to the Clinton era, has a “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy and the law schools do not think that is satisfactory so they will not allow military recruiters. Under the Solomon Act any school that did not allow military recruiters were barred from receiving Department of Defense funds. This was later expanded to include any federal money. So now there is a lawsuit saying that the universities should not be forced to have recruiters in order to receive federal money.

I want to know why these schools think it is perfectly OK to take our tax dollars and not abide by the rules for getting those tax dollars. There is a rule that if you want the money you have to allow the recruiters. They are not being forced to do anything. If they do not want the recruiters that is fine with me but I will be damned if I want my tax dollars going to those schools. This is another problem with the entitlement society, everyone feels they are entitled to federal tax dollars.

The state of South Carolina forced the Citadel to admit a woman, Shannon Faulkner, to their all male school because they received state funds. They had two choices, not take the money or allow the female. They caved and allowed the female, which was appropriate because they refused to give up the money. Faulkner later dropped out of the school, it was apparently too tough for her. The point is, other institutions are expected to follow rules when they receive tax dollars so what makes these colleges any different?

The schools say the government is denying them their First Amendment right to free speech:

The Forum for Academic and Institutional Rights (FAIR), a coalition of law schools, the Society for American Law Teachers (SALT), and several individuals brought a legal challenge to the law claiming that it is a violation of the First Amendment’s guarantee of free expression to force law schools to give the military access to their recruitment programs or lose all federal funding for the entire university. The Third Circuit Court of Appeals agreed with the law schools and issued a preliminary injunction against enforcement of the law. The government appealed the case to the Supreme Court, which agreed to hear the case.

The ACLU brief argues that it is a violation of the Constitutional guarantee of free speech for the government to force itself into a law school’s recruitment program. The brief notes, “These schools feel that the military isn’t a good employer because it discriminates. The government doesn’t get to cut off all funding to the rest of the university because the law schools won’t let the military use their recruitment process to spread its anti-gay message.”

The government is not denying them any right whatsoever. The government is telling them in order to receive federal money, money belonging to taxpayers, then they have to abide by the conditions to receive said money. Perhaps conservative taxpayers should sue to prevent the money from going to predominantly liberal universities that stifle the free speech of conservatives such as Ann Coulter and conservative student associations. I am willing to bet the ACLU would be on the other side of that argument.

Article from the ACLU web site.

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