Lifland said that Rumsfeld can block all federal funding to any law school that flouts the statute, and he can cut off Pentagon funding to other branches of the university as well.

But the judge said that the Pentagon cannot control other agencies’ appropriations to university programs apart from the law school.

Under Lifland’s interpretation of the statute, Harvard would lose only a small percentage of its federal research funding. In Fiscal Year 2002, only 4.2 percent of the University’s government support—roughly $16.6 million—came from the Defense Department, according to the University Fact Book.

That figure contrasts starkly with the $328 million that the University received from all federal agencies in Fiscal Year 2002—the total amount that would be at risk under Rumsfeld’s reading of the amendment.

Lifland also expressed skepticism towards FAIR’s constitutional claims and rejected the group’s request for a temporary injunction to halt enforcement of the Solomon Amendment.

Despite mounting opposition to the amendment, the Defense Department vowed yesterday that the military would hold fast to its recruitment policies.

“The opinion [issued by Lifland] is still under review and future plans have not changed at this time,” Pentagon spokesperson James Turner wrote in an e-mail to The Crimson.