I read the Supreme Court case brought by a group of law schools claiming that their 1st Amendment rights were jeopardized by the Solomon Amendment that required military recruiters on campuses to be treated equally with other job recruiters.
The press hasn’t pointed out the significance of this decision, so I will. First, in oral argument, the court laughed at the law schools’ case. Then in the actual decision the justices were equally rude and told the law school plaintiffs that nothing keeps the law school from putting up a sign near the Army recruiting table saying ‘this Law School hates the military.’ Enough with the legal nonsense.
This case was important for three separate reasons:
First, Chief Justice Roberts was able to get an 8-0 decision which is evidence to me that he will be the strongest chief justice in the past 100 years, more so than Chief Justice Warren. Remember, Alito wasn’t even on the court for the 8-0 vote.
Second, the case was used by the Court to point out that Congressional powers go far beyond the individual law that the law schools contested. The Court said that Congress has the power to raise an Army and a Navy any way it wants. Any way it wants. I don’t think the law schools wanted to hear that bit of news. If I were Rummey I would ask Congress to draft all Law School Deans, regardless of age, for emergency legal duty in Iraq.
Third, the Court used this case to state that this Court will be the most liberal court on the issues of the First Amendment in the history of the Supreme Court. The Court proudly referred to prayer in school cases, flag burning cases and a variety of free speech precedents, gratuitously.