Letter Opposes Recruiting

Over half the members of the Harvard Law School (HLS) faculty submitted a letter to University President Lawrence H. Summers Wednesday afternoon, imploring him to join in litigation aimed at preventing the military from participating in on-campus recruiting.

Faculty members who oversaw the letter’s creation and circulation expressed satisfaction over the high level of support that the letter elicited.

“It’s very rare to get such a deep consensus about an issue from the law faculty,” Professor of Law Christine A. Desan, who helped to draft the letter, wrote in an e-mail. “That makes the letter a very strong statement that we should challenge the legality of the Solomon Amendment.”

The Solomon Amendment allows the Pentagon to block federal funding from universities that limit military recruiters’ access to students. The military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy on gays, however, contradicts the Law School’s nondiscrimination policy.

Forty-seven of the school’s 81 professors signed the letter, which outlines how the Solomon Amendment violates University policy.

Following stricter enforcement of the act since 2002, a number of schools and faculty coalitions have filed suit.

According to a draft report from the Office for Sponsored Research, Harvard received about $412 million from the federal government during Fiscal Year 2003. At the risk of losing those funds, the letter says, HLS has been forced to allow military recruiting on campus since 2002.

The body of the letter, which is shorter than the list of professors who signed it, ends with an appeal to Summers.

“Given these circumstances, we urge you to initiate or join litigation designed to challenge the Solomon Amendment,” the letter states.

According to a Summers spokesperson, the president did received the letter, but will not comment on its content until he has a chance to reply to the letter in writing.

The official letter that Summers received Wednesday contained only 46 signatures, but it inadvertently omitted the name of Climenko Professor of Law Charles J. Ogletree Jr.

Desan said Ogletree e-mailed Summers late Wednesday to express his support for the letter.

In an interview on Tuesday, one day before the letter was delivered to his office, Summers said he would not be surprised if members of the HLS faculty decided to file a lawsuit.

In fact, Summers said, “it would be entirely appropriate” if they did.

“Certainly, there’s no disagreement on how unfortunate and wrong the military’s policy with gays is,” Summers said.

However, Summers said he did not know enough about the constitutional merits of the lawsuit to determine if it would succeed.

On Oct. 16, 44 Yale Law School professors took legal action over the Solomon Amendment in New Haven, and on Oct. 1, professors of the University of Pennsylvania Law School filed suit. The Forum for Academic and Institutional Rights, an anonymous association of law schools and professors, submitted a lawsuit on Sept. 19.

—Staff writer Elisabeth S. Theodore contributed to the reporting of this article.