Rosenkranz said that he understands that some law schools would not want to join the suit—even anonymously—out of fear of retribution from the government.

“Every school has to follow its own conscience,” he said.

But several HLS professors are among SALT’s approximately 800 members nationwide, including founding member and Frankfurter professor of Law Alan M. Dershowitz.

Undergraduates, law students and professors have criticized the University and HLS for not doing more to protest the government’s crackdown.

On Thursday, the College’s Bisexual, Gay, Lesbian, Transgendered and Supporters Alliance and Lambda, the law school’s corresponding group, hosted a teach-in on military policy towards gays.

This weekend, Lambda sponsored a two-day conference on issues of gays in the military, including the Solomon Amendment.

“Despite its strong rhetoric against discrimination in military recruiting, Harvard has declined to fight the policy even in ways that would not threaten its funding,” said first-year law student Matthew D. Muller, who is a former Marine and a member of Lambda. “I’m disturbed by Harvard’s failure to uphold its stated principles and protect its students.”

The legal controversy is the latest offshoot of the military’s controversial “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy, which emerged in the mid-1990s.

The policy provides that openly gay people may serve in the U.S. military, but are not allowed to reveal their sexual orientation.

Law schools and military officials have long been at odds over recruiting practices and policy towards gays.

In 1990, the American Association of Law Schools added “sexual orientation” as a category to its non-discrimination policy.

As a result, many law schools, including Harvard, barred or limited military recruiting on campus.

But last year, after the Air Force informed then-HLS Dean Robert C. Clark that the government would begin enforcing the Solomon Amendment—which would cost the University as much as $328 billion in federal funding if it continued to ban military recruiters—HLS let the recruiters on campus.