Military recruiting in Alabama

Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously upheld the Solomon Amendment, a 1996 law which restricts federal funding of any college or university that denies military recruiters access equal to that provided to other recruiters. (The case was Rumsfeld vs. FAIR; the opinion of the Court was written by Chief Justice John Roberts.)

The University of Alabama School of Law and the Cumberland School of Law are not affected by the ruling, since they already allow military recruiters on their campuses. However, the story could have been very different. Back in 1994, it literally took an act of the legislature to force the UA Law School to allow military recruiters:

(AP) The law school at Tuscaloosa once restricted recruiters, but Jennifer McCracken, a spokeswoman at Alabama, said they are allowed now. ...

At Alabama in the 1990s, military recruiters weren't allowed to meet with students in the law school, despite opposition from the law faculty. The restrictions on recruiting were enacted in 1994 after the Association of American Law Schools, which includes 160 top law schools, adopted a rule to protest the military's policy toward gays as discriminatory.

Then-Alabama Attorney General Jeff Sessions objected to the restrictions at Alabama, which were eventually dropped, and legislators passed a law requiring that schools let military recruiters on campus.

"For us, (the ruling Monday) is a non-story because of the state law," said Rodney Waites, assistant dean for career services at Alabama. A few dozen law students talk annually with military recruiters, and two entered the service last year, he said.

That's all well and good - thank you Jeff Sessions - but the UA School of Law is still a member of the Association of American Law Schools, and to my knowledge, the AALS still requires the following of its member law schools:

For purposes of compliance with the bylaws, schools that choose to permit access to the military may demonstrate adequate "amelioration" by a number of different actions. As a starting point, each school should assure that all its students, as well as others in the law school community, are informed each year that the military discriminates on a basis not permitted by the school's nondiscrimination rules and the AALS bylaws and that the military is being permitted to interview only because of the loss of funds that would otherwise be imposed under the Solomon Amendment (or, in appropriate cases, because of higher university directives that compel the law school to permit access). Other ameliorative acts that schools might consider include forums or panels for the discussion of the military policy or for the discussion of discrimination based on sexual orientation. Although no specific type of amelioration is required, the Executive Committee will examine the actions schools take in the context of the totality of the school's efforts to support an hospitable environment for its students. In assessing that environment, the Association will consider, among other things, the presence of an active lesbian and gay student organization and the presence of openly lesbian and gay faculty and staff. We would be grateful if schools would advise us of effective amelioration strategies in which they have engaged so that we can periodically share those strategies with other member schools.

I'm sorry, but no school that is supported by Alabamians' tax dollars should have to "ameliorate," apologize, or otherwise do penance for allowing the U.S. military to recruit on its campus. Apparently, though, the UA School of Law has done exactly that. It is still a member of the AALS, so the assumption has to be that it has adhered to the AALS's policy. How so? Just what sort of "amerlioration" has the UA School of Law undertaken in recent years to satisfy the politically correct whims of the AALS? I'd love to know...wouldn't you?