In a resoundingly unanimous vote, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled last week that colleges and universities that accept federal dollars cannot bar U.S. military recruiters from campus. This was a welcome victory for equity, the Constitution and common sense.

The case, Rumsfeld v. FAIR, pitted a 1994 law known as the Solomon Amendment against a coalition of university law schools calling itself the Forum for Academic and Institutional Rights. FAIR objected to the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy, which bans openly gay and lesbian individuals from serving in the armed forces. The Solomon Amendment denies federal funds to colleges and universities that discriminate against military recruiters by denying them equal access to campuses.

FAIR argued that the Solomon Amendment was an unconstitutional violation of their members’ First Amendment rights to free speech, namely, the right to protest the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy. Oddly, the Third U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals agreed, whereupon the case went to the Supreme Court.

In its 8-0 vote, the Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of the Solomon Amendment and rejected FAIR’s spurious argument that this impinged on freedom of speech. Writing for the court, Chief Justice John Roberts argued that the Solomon legislation regulated conduct, not speech.

“It affects what law schools must do — afford equal access to military recruiters — not what they may or may not say,” wrote Roberts.

Exactly so. Law schools, university administrations, faculty and students are free to protest all they want against “don’t ask, don’t tell.” But they are not free to exclude the U.S. military from recruiting on campus while accepting federal subsidies. Universities can exclude military recruiting on campus if they also refuse federal financial support.

Rumsfeld v. FAIR was decided on proper constitutional grounds. But this case evoked two additional issues: “don’t ask, don’t tell,” and the social obligations of elite universities in particular to share some responsibility for national defense. What message does it send to a wartime all-volunteer military drawn predominantly from less-advantaged families when such bastions of privilege as Harvard and Columbia won’t even let armed forces recruiters on campus?

As for “don’t ask, don’t tell,” protesters should recognize that this is a compromise policy, devised more than a decade ago, to bridge the chasm between absolutists opposed to all gays in the military and advocates of full equality regarding sexual orientation. However awkward, it’s an honest attempt to reconcile civil liberties and what the military sees as its imperative for good order and discipline.

The Supreme Court’s 8-0 decision writes finis to the legal debate over whether colleges and universities can take federal subsidies while discriminating against the U.S. military. They cannot, and should not.

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