I suggest we recheck the facts, and more importantly, her intentions
Perhaps this will help:
Two laws at issue
The dispute involved two laws: the 1993 "don't ask, don't tell" statute, which excluded openly gay or lesbian soldiers, and the 1996 Solomon Amendment, which barred federal funding to any institution that denied equal access to military recruiters.
The amendment was seldom enforced until 2001, when the Bush administration threatened to cut off funds to any college whose law school restricted military recruitment.Harvard, which stood to lose $328 million in federal aid, opened its doors to armed forces recruiters the following year. It had previously barred them under a 1979 university policy denying access to employers who discriminated based on sexual orientation. The Association of American Law Schools adopted a similar policy in 1990.
Free-speech question
Kagan became dean in 2003, and at first maintained military recruiters' access to the law school. But she barred them after a federal appeals court declared in 2004 that the Solomon Amendment appeared to violate law schools' freedom of speech by forcing them to spread an anti-gay message they opposed.
The Bush administration appealed to the Supreme Court while renewing its warning of a funding cutoff. Kagan, whose school was not involved in the court case, readmitted military recruiters before the high court issued a ruling, an action she told Harvard students she regretted."I believe the military's discriminatory employment policy is deeply wrong - both unwise and unjust," she said in a message to the student body. "And this wrong tears at the fabric of our own community by denying an opportunity to some of our students that others of our students have."
Court unanimous
Kagan and other law school deans signed a brief urging the Supreme Court to overturn the Solomon Amendment, but the court unanimously upheld the law in March 2006. Military recruiters don't impose their message on law schools, which remain free to criticize government policy, Chief Justice John Roberts said in the court ruling.
Kagan has taken pains since then to stress her support for the armed forces while opposing its policy on gays and lesbians. In a recent speech at West Point, she expressed awe at the cadets' courage and dedication while lamenting the continuing conflict between the military and law schools.
Meanwhile, the Justice Department is defending "don't ask, don't tell" in a federal court in Riverside, despite Obama's opposition to the policy.
Kagan - who promised senators last year to defend the law if it was challenged - does not handle lower-court proceedings such as the Riverside case. But it is likely to come up at her confirmation hearing.
Read more:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/05/10/BANF1DCC84.DTL#ixzz0nb5liLg1
