Page 3 - Solomon Amendment News Today

Tried to adhere to the rules of harvard university and allow military recruiting at the same time. >> jeffrey, let me bring your legal brain back into this because theres a lot of back and forth and people trying to understand. and republicans certainly trying to paint it a certain way. but remind us exactly what she did when it comes to the law. it sounds like she just wouldnt allow these recruiters into a certain area of the school versus having access to the students. so break this down for u...

Required. congress frankly was frustrated at the law school. we passed four or five versions of the solomon amendment to get around every maneuver that occurred on the campus. now, isnt it a fact that the mandate or the injunction never issued by the third circuit, that the third circuit holding did not apply to harvard at the time you stopped complying with the solomon amendment, and isnt it a fact that you are acting in violation of harvards agreement and the law when you reversed policy? >> s...

That it wanted law schools to essentially ignore the third circuit decision, that it wanted -- that it was going to take that decision to the supreme court and that it wanted law schools to continue to do what they had been doing, we did change back, we did precisely what dod asked us to do, and dod never withheld the -- >> well, you didnt, ms. kagan, you didnt do what the dod asked you to do. just ask this, put your legal hat on for a second, the third circuit opinion never stayed the enforceme...

Supporters have been trying to say she dheecontinued the polic she didnt institute, but the truth is what happened while she was dean is the third circuit court in philadelphia, federal appeals court struck down the solomon amendment and as soon as they did it. she at harvard in the 1st circuit, not bound by the third circuit decision saying you no longer have to follow the solomon amendment she nantly reverted back to an old policy that essentially hurt the military that didnt allow them full a...

Were blocked, they were stonewalled, they were getting the runaround from harvard. by the time they realized that you had actually changed the policy, that recruiting season was over. and the law was never not in force. i feel like you mishandled that. im absolutely confident you did. and -- but you continue to persist with this view that somehow there was a loophole in the statute that harvard did not have to come ply with, after congress had written a statute that would be very hard to get aro...

Dod agreed with us. after the third circuit, i thought it was appropriate to go back to our old policy which previously dod had thought complied with the solomon amendment, when dod came to us and said no, the third circuit really hasnt changed matters because were going to take this to the supreme court and we want law schools really to ignore what the third circuit said, dod and we had some discussions, and we went back to doing it exactly the way dod wanted to. >> well, thats -- lets get more...

One circuit court of appeals determined that that was unconstitutional and the supreme court eventually decided that, yes. military recruiters have to be on the campuses and the solomon amendment threatening the funds is, in fact, constitutional and elena kagan reversed the policy, and the point was because of her politics and because of her being deeply opposed to "dont ask, dont tell", personally that that led her to her decision with how she handled military recruiters and hes laying the grou...

And she had such a problem and she worked for him and wanted to kick the military off of her campus recruiting office and she said they had equal access through this veterans and recruiting went up during my tenure and critics said thanks to the hustle of the veterans, that is why the numbers went up, she cannot take credit for that. martha: it is interesting, and, he was narrowing it down to that, how do you feel about the military, when given the opportunity to work with them you gave them the...

Students know that the military recruiters were going to be at harvard during that recruiting season and military recruiting went up that year, not down. so youre exactly right, that the supreme court did reject our amicas brief. again, we filed an amicas brief not attacking the constitutionality of the solomon amendment but instead saying that essentially the harvard policy complied with the solomon amendment, the supreme court rejected it 9-0, unanimously. >> but even before that the military ...

Chief justice berger wrote a concurrence to raise questions likely to arise in the future. these questions included that large corporations would have an unfair advantage in the political process. he had amazing insight because people are making such arguments today. that also involved the first amendment protect of the press that burger noted how the government tried to limit what may be said about it. he concluded quote in short the first amendment does not belong to any definable person or en...