Letter to the House on the Solomon Amendment

ACLU Solomon Amendment Letter

March 25, 1999

Dear Representative:

The American Civil Liberties Union strongly urges you to cosponsor H.R. 1123, which Congressmen Barney Frank (D-MA) and Tom Campbell (R-CA) introduced to restore fairness for our nation's students. It will repeal a law which makes the financial aid and the civil rights of students pawns in a dispute between the federal government and states and universities. It will stop the federal government from undermining university policies and state laws that ban discrimination based on sexual orientation by threatening to cut off student financial aid.

H.R. 1123 partially repeals an appropriations rider slipped into the omnibus appropriations bill for Fiscal Year 1997. That rider greatly expanded an existing federal law which denied Department of Defense grants to schools that bar military recruiters from their campuses or prevent ROTC programs from operating on campus. As expanded by the rider, the law now denies all federal funds, including student aid administered by universities, to schools which refuse to breach their anti-discrimination policies by allowing military recruiters and ROTC programs on campus. H.R. 1123 responds to that threat by exempting student financial aid from the much broader prohibition on all federal funds.

Many state and local governments have laws that prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation in public accommodations, including universities. Many universities comply with those state and local laws by prohibiting from campus any job recruiter or any curriculum that denies students employment or educational opportunities based on sexual orientation. Other universities have imposed similar policies as a way to ensure that their students can learn best on a campus that is free of discrimination. As a result, many schools have banned military recruiters and ROTC programs on campus until they treat all students equally.

H.R. 1123 will help make federal student assistance programs consistent with the long-standing federal practice of not preempting stronger civil rights protections provided by state or local laws or by individual universities. Universities should not have to choose among conflicting federal mandates, state civil rights laws, and university anti-discrimination policies. And they should not have to choose between their students who need financial aid and their students who need protection from discrimination.

We urge you to contact Congressmen Frank or Campbell to cosponsor this important legislation. Please do not hesitate to call us if you have any questions or comments regarding this issue.

Very truly yours,

Laura W. Murphy
Director

Christopher E. Anders
Legislative Counsel