Solomon Amendment - History

History

In the 1980s, U.S. Representative Gerald B. H. Solomon (R-NY) sponsored a series of "Solomon amendments" that conditioned eligibility for Federal financial aid for higher education and job training, Federal government employment, and other Federal benefits on certification by the individual that they either had registered with the Selective Service System or were not required to register. This was successfully challenged in federal District Court in 1983 on the grounds that it determined guilt and inflicted punishment without judicial process. The Supreme Court reversed that decision in Selective Service System v. Minnesota Public Interest Research Group (1984). In 2009, the same provision was held to constitute an unconstitutional "bill of attainder" when applied to men denied Federal government employment who were too old to be allowed to cure their ineligibility by registering for the draft.

The Solomon Amendment relating to ROTC and military recruiting was passed in 1996. It denied federal grants from 8 federal agencies, including research grants, to colleges and universities that prohibit or prevent the U.S. armed forces from recruiting on campus in a manner "at least equal in quality and scope" as other employers or that fail to allow for ROTC programs as part of their academic programs subject to the same standards as other academic programs. It was recodified in 1999. The law was amended in 2002 to cover recruiting by the Coast Guard as part of the Department of Homeland Security. It also provides an exception for any institution with "a longstanding policy of pacifism based on historical religious affiliation."

It was revised in later years, most importantly in 1999, when Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA) sponsored an exemption for financial aid funding (Pub L. 106-79 Sec. 8120), and again in 2001, when the Republican leadership of the House Armed Services Committee included language denying all federal funding to a university if any of its schools blocked access to recruiters. This alteration significantly strengthened the reach of the Solomon Amendment, since recruiters were most often denied access to law schools, which receive little federal money.