The plaintiffs argued for immediate action against the Pentagon because “each day of this First Amendment violation is irreparable harm that outweighs the minimal impact on the military’s effort to recruit lawyers,” according to the brief filed Monday.

“When the government forces a law school to abet a discriminatory employer...it undermines the school’s academic decisions, muddles the school’s message, and compels the school to carry a message and support a cause against its will,” the plaintiffs argue in the brief.

HLS exempted the military from its nondiscrimination policy in 2002 after Pentagon officials threatened to block hundreds of millions of dollars in federal funds to the University.

While University President Lawrence H. Summers called the Pentagon’s policy “offensive to human dignity” in a Dec. 3 letter to the Harvard Gay and Lesbian Caucus, he has said on multiple occasions that Harvard will not join FAIR’s coalition.

Law students and professors from Yale and the University of Pennsylvania have filed their own suits. Students and professors at HLS have made moves towards initiating litigation but have not released a timetable for action.

FAIR protects its member schools’ anonymity to shield them from Pentagon retaliation, but New York University Law School and four others have publicly identified themselves as part of the coalition.

FAIR is joined in its lawsuit by individual activists and the Society of American Law Teachers, an organization of over 800 professors.

The suit lists Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld and five other Bush cabinet members as defendants.

Pentagon officials did not return repeated requests for comment.

FAIR’s brief argues that the Solomon Amendment does not require schools to provide “affirmative assistance,” such as use of universities’ recruiting resources, to military representatives.

But according to FAIR’s brief, “the military executed an about-face” in December 2001, demanding inclusion in the schools’ official recruiting functions.

Regardless of the Third Circuit’s ruling, litigants will likely appeal the decision to the Supreme Court, Feldblum said.

—Staff writer Andrew C. Esensten can be reached at esenst@fas.harvard.edu.

—Staff writer Daniel J. Hemel can be reached at hemel@fas.harvard.edu.