The Law School Council (LSC), a student government organization, this fall voted down by a 17-14 margin a Lambda-sponsored resolution urging HLS to join a coalition of law schools which has filed suit against the Department of Defense.

Goad said the resolution’s defeat largely rested on a “procedural matter” and that first-year representatives were reluctant to politicize the LSC’s operations.

“We would like to raise [the resolution] again,” Goad said.

She noted that Lambda achieved considerable success in coordinating petition efforts with the Harvard Bisexual, Gay, Lesbian, Transgender and Supporters’ Alliance (BGLTSA), an undergraduate group.

Undergraduates, medical school students and Kennedy School students each delivered more than 100 signatures, Goad said.

Of the 1,082 total signatures, a majority came from the HLS student body.

BGLTSA co-chair Stephanie M. Skier ’05 said that her organization garnered even more signatures than appeared on the petition, but some were received after the deadline set by Lambda had expired.

“Each signature probably represents five or 10 undergraduates who support this initiative,” Skier said.

She noted that BGLTSA has more than 500 members, nearly all of whom she said oppose the Solomon Amendment.

The number and diversity of signatories “is a clear indication that this issue is important to a lot of people and that it is something that Summers needs to take action on,” Goad said.

FAIR and Balanced

The Forum for Academic and Institutional Rights (FAIR), a network of 15 law schools and faculties, joined with a professors’ group in September to file suit in U.S. District Court in Newark, N.J., claiming that the Pentagon’s threats infringed upon educators’ First Amendment rights.

After Judge John C. Lifland, presiding over the FAIR litigation, rejected the Defense Department’s motion to dismiss the lawsuit last Wednesday, some opponents of the Solomon Amendment predicted that other universities would be encouraged to file suit.

Lifland’s opinion suggested that he concurred with FAIR’s claims that Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld has overstepped his Congressional mandate.

Rumsfeld has asserted that the Solomon Amendment grants him the power to cut off all federal funds for universities that inhibit military recruitment at their law schools.