Laws force universities to discriminate(don't ask/don't tell)

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Laws force universities to discriminate

By Michael Rooke-Ley
For The Register-Guard



On the eve of our departure for the Supreme Court in Washington, D.C., my 13-year-old son Hayden keeps asking, "What does gay or lesbian have to do with being a lawyer?" Hapless Dad offers a useless response: "I wish I only knew."
Perhaps we'll both learn something as we witness Tuesday's oral arguments in our case challenging the government's threat to withdraw all funding to universities whose law schools enforce their own nondiscrimination policies. Here's the background:
This is not an issue to divide liberals and conservatives. This is not an issue of military preparedness, nor is it a referendum on the war in Iraq. It is a question of values - values at the heart of America's tradition.
At its noblest, the practice of law, like that of medicine, has been a public service profession, in which lawyers seek to provide an effective voice for those seeking justice, regardless of their station in life. As the public has recognized, lawyers have not always lived up to these aspirations, and, in particular, the Watergate scandal in the 1970s served to light a fire under those of us who train lawyers.
In law schools across the country, a greater emphasis has been placed on the teaching of legal ethics and fundamental principles of justice and equality - and, in turn, on practicing what we preach. Into what had been an overwhelmingly white, male profession, we worked hard to bring significant numbers of women and people of color into our student bodies and into the legal profession.
Part of our work as law professors always has been to encourage prospective employers to come to our campuses, interview our fine students and, hopefully, offer them employment. In days of old, some employers wanted to interview only our male students ("Our corporate clients want real lawyers, not lady lawyers"); others were not interested in students of color.
As teachers of the law, we were rightly accused of hypocrisy when we allowed this discrimination to continue under our own roofs while espousing justice and equality in the classroom.
Law schools around the country began adopting nondiscrimination policies, telling prospective employers that if they wished to use our facilities and take advantage of the support and publicity that we always provided, they would have to agree not to discriminate on the basis of race, nationality, sexual orientation, religion, gender and the like. We wanted all our students to be eligible to apply for interviews, and while only some would ultimately succeed on the basis of legitimate criteria such as their academic records, work experience and personal attributes, we did not want any student arbitrarily excluded on the basis of irrelevant and immutable characteristics.
These concerns are now reflected in a mandatory, nationwide nondiscrimination policy adopted by the Association of American Law Schools.
Unfortunately, a few employers were unwilling to sign off on a nondiscrimination policy and chose to no longer conduct law school campus interviewing. The military has been unwilling to comply because it chooses to hire only law school graduates who are heterosexuals.
Many of our gay and lesbian students come from military families, have great respect for the military and would like to consider service as a military lawyer with the Judge Advocate General's office. But simply because of their sexual orientation, irrespective of their academic achievements and other accomplishments, the military refuses to give them a chance.
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