Big gun on campus

The verdict is in, it’s unanimous and it’s no surprise: The Supreme Court made a reactionary and militarist ruling that the Pentagon has the right to recruit on college campuses and at law schools, despite its bigoted anti-gay practices. Therefore, the robed judges declared, any college that denies full access to Pentagon recruiters will be barred from federal funding.

This ruling is a threat to every college or university administration and board of trustees: Give the uniformed body snatchers full access to students or lose your share of the $35 billion a year in federal aid. At risk is not just Defense Department contracts, but monies for scientific and medical research, trans por tation and Department of Education grants.

Faculty from dozens of schools had jointly filed a suit named Rumsfeld vs. Forum for Academic and Institutional Rights (FAIR). This suit against the Defense Department included New York University, University of San Francisco, Georgetown and Stanford. The suit argued that the anti-gay policies of the Pentagon violate hard-won campus anti-discrimination policies.

Six years ago, the Supreme Court had set back gay rights in a 5-4 decision that ruled the Boy Scouts had a free-speech right to oust a gay scoutmaster because his very existence in the organization challenged their discriminatory “moral message.” The suit by the universities argued that the same legal logic should apply in this situation. They defended their free-speech right to oust an anti-gay employer, the Pentagon, whose presence conflicted with the schools’ anti-discriminatory moral message.

However, the Supreme Court judges ruled 8-0 that faculty could say whatever they wanted, but the bottom line is: You must give Pentagon recruiters the same rights as any other employer.

The Pentagon is not just any other employer. In this “job,” workers come back in body bags or deeply wounded physically, emotionally and psychologically. In this job, workers are ordered to bomb, gun down and torture other workers and their families as the U.S. occupies whole countries.

This case did not take up most of these issues. The legal basis for the challenge to military recruitment on campuses was solely based on the Pentagon’s war against its own GIs—
gay and lesbian, bisexual and trans—
a relentless witch hunt that further demonstrates the vicious character of the imperialist military.

But the generals and admirals have demonstrated that this policy can be briefly lifted—as it was during the first Gulf War when they need to beef up troop force. However, after that war, LGBT soldiers received less than
honorable discharges, stripping them
of veterans’ benefits.

This Supreme Court ruling is a direct challenge to youth on campuses across the country to mount a fierce counter-recruitment struggle as youth protest
the war on Iraq itself. It’s time to take the struggle against the war—at home and abroad—to every campus and into the streets.

To connect with those fighting military recruiting, see www.troopsoutnow.org.