Pentagon officials did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
Summers’ announcement of talks with the Pentagon came in response to a Dec. 3 letter from Parry assailing him for acquiescing to the Pentagon pressure and pressing the University to join or file a lawsuit against the Pentagon.
In his letter to Parry, Summers expressed sympathy with gay rights advocates’ aims. “The Solomon Amendment as interpreted and enforced is bad public policy,” he wrote.
The military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” rule is “offensive to human dignity and to principles of nondiscrimination,” Summers added.
But Summers’ sharp criticism of the Pentagon failed to assuage some Solomon Amendment opponents.
“For him to make statements about public policy ignores a crucial issue,” Tepperman-Gelfant said. “This is not just about ‘don’t ask, don’t tell.’ It’s about the promise that Harvard has made to its students...about academic freedom and equal opportunity.”
Summers reiterated that the University would not challenge the Pentagon’s interpretation of the Solomon Amendment in court, though HLS Lambda President Amanda C. Goad said yesterday that Law School students are currently preparing suits independent of the University.
HLS faculty have made moves towards litigation as well, though neither the faculty nor the students considering suits will say when they might be ready to file.
“There is starting to be a beneficial effect because of the pressure brought to bear against the Defense Department, not only at Harvard, but by law schools across the country,” said Boston College Professor of Law Kent Greenfield, president of the Forum for Academic and Institutional Rights (FAIR), a network of 15 law schools organized to fight the Solomon Amendment.
In December, a U.S. District Court Judge John C. Lifland rejected FAIR’s motion for a temporary injunction suspending the amendment. The group appealed Lifland’s ruling to the Third Circuit Court.
Greenfield said that FAIR will submit briefs to the appellate court today. Pentagon lawyers will then have one month to respond, and oral arguments will follow soon thereafter.
—Staff writer Andrew C. Esensten can be reached at esenst@fas.harvard.edu.edu.
—Staff writer Daniel J. Hemel can be reached at hemel@fas.harvard.edu.