Yale Prof Explains Why Recruiter Suit Dropped
Yale law school professors who don’t want to see military recruiters at the school have decided the fight is not worth $350 million.
Law professor Robert Burt, the lead plaintiff, said his group of 45 faculty members decided not to pursue the case after an appeals court ruled against them last month, the New York Times reports. The professors had challenged the Solomon Amendment, which permits the federal government to withhold funds from schools that don’t allow military recruiters on campus.
The federal government had told the school it would withhold about $350 million, mostly for medical and scientific research, if recruiters were banned from campus. The profs say they object to the recruiters because the military discriminates based on sexual orientation under its don’t-ask-don’t-tell policy.
“We had a choice, which is we could continue to exclude the military, and Yale University would have lost $300 million per year,” Burt told the Times. “We’re not going to bring the medical school and the whole science enterprise to its knees.”
The lawsuit decision isn’t stopping opposition, however. Students were planning a protest today, according to wtnh.com.
