Most law schools require applicants to write an essay about why they want to be a lawyer and most applicants scribble away about justice and the rule of law elevating human society from the swamps of savagery. If their sentiments are sufficiently lofty, the applicants are accepted into law school and the professors begin to systematically disabuse them about every notion they ever held about justice or the rule of law.
For a case in point, let’s visit the Vermont Law School, where recruiters are visiting campus, hoping to scoop up eager legal minds. Vermont Law School has a policy that forbids on?campus recruiting by employers who practice discrimination. The state of Vermont has a law prohibiting discrimination in public accommodations. And yet, in the past few weeks on?campus recruitment has been conducted by an employer which openly discriminates against gays and lesbians ? the United States Army.
The Judge Advocate General Corps, which constitutes the legal arm of the army, not only refuses to hire gays and lesbians to practice law in military courts, but it is the Judge Advocate General Corps that prosecutes ? perhaps I should say persecutes ? military personnel accused of being homosexual. When it comes to violating anti?discrimination rules and statutes, these people have two strikes against them.
Similar anti?discrimination statues were used to keep military recruiters off Connecticut campuses in 1996, but since then Congress has passed a law which states that any school prohibiting military recruiters will lose federal funding. About 300 of Vermont Law School’s 500 students receive either federally?backed student loans or work?study grants. The administration at Vermont Law School took one look at the numbers, said to hell with justice and the rule of law and allowed the military recruiters on campus.
According to sources I spoke with, it is unclear whether the new federal law would cut off loans and grants to students, or just to the institution itself. To resolve that question, it’s probably going to take ? you guessed it ? a court case, but it looks like such a case will not be brought by the cowards who run Vermont Law School.
The law students, however, are another matter. One student petitioned superior court to issue a temporary restraining order to prevent the recruiters from coming to campus. His petition was denied, so he appealed to the state supreme court, where his motion was denied again, on procedural grounds. The merits of his argument were not addressed.
Unable to stop the Judge Advocate General Corps from coming to campus, the law students were reduced to holding a vigil and a protest. If nothing else, at least the First Amendment remains in effect.
On one hand, the students at Vermont Law School should take heart. Their motion was denied on procedural grounds; they have a year to work on the issue and bring their case again.
On the other hand, they’ve learned our legal system has very little to do with justice or the rule of law. It’s about power, and those who have power use it to their advantage.
They’ve learned administrators at their school theorize about law, but when confronted with an obvious injustice in their own front yard, they backed away from the fight.
I can’t help thinking about this year’s commencement ceremony, about the dean’s address to the graduates. How hollow his words will sound.
Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, Don’t Recruit
Most law schools require applicants to write an essay about why they want to be a lawyer and most applicants scribble away about justice and the rule of law elevating human society from the swamps of savagery. If their sentiments are sufficiently lofty, the applicants are accepted into law school and the professors begin to systematically disabuse them about every notion they ever held about justice or the rule of law.
For a case in point, let’s visit the Vermont Law School, where recruiters are visiting campus, hoping to scoop up eager legal minds. Vermont Law School has a policy that forbids on?campus recruiting by employers who practice discrimination. The state of Vermont has a law prohibiting discrimination in public accommodations. And yet, in the past few weeks on?campus recruitment has been conducted by an employer which openly discriminates against gays and lesbians ? the United States Army.
The Judge Advocate General Corps, which constitutes the legal arm of the army, not only refuses to hire gays and lesbians to practice law in military courts, but it is the Judge Advocate General Corps that prosecutes ? perhaps I should say persecutes ? military personnel accused of being homosexual. When it comes to violating anti?discrimination rules and statutes, these people have two strikes against them.
Similar anti?discrimination statues were used to keep military recruiters off Connecticut campuses in 1996, but since then Congress has passed a law which states that any school prohibiting military recruiters will lose federal funding. About 300 of Vermont Law School’s 500 students receive either federally?backed student loans or work?study grants. The administration at Vermont Law School took one look at the numbers, said to hell with justice and the rule of law and allowed the military recruiters on campus.
According to sources I spoke with, it is unclear whether the new federal law would cut off loans and grants to students, or just to the institution itself. To resolve that question, it’s probably going to take ? you guessed it ? a court case, but it looks like such a case will not be brought by the cowards who run Vermont Law School.
The law students, however, are another matter. One student petitioned superior court to issue a temporary restraining order to prevent the recruiters from coming to campus. His petition was denied, so he appealed to the state supreme court, where his motion was denied again, on procedural grounds. The merits of his argument were not addressed.
Unable to stop the Judge Advocate General Corps from coming to campus, the law students were reduced to holding a vigil and a protest. If nothing else, at least the First Amendment remains in effect.
On one hand, the students at Vermont Law School should take heart. Their motion was denied on procedural grounds; they have a year to work on the issue and bring their case again.
On the other hand, they’ve learned our legal system has very little to do with justice or the rule of law. It’s about power, and those who have power use it to their advantage.
They’ve learned administrators at their school theorize about law, but when confronted with an obvious injustice in their own front yard, they backed away from the fight.
I can’t help thinking about this year’s commencement ceremony, about the dean’s address to the graduates. How hollow his words will sound.