Rotunda: "Kagan's Anti Military Campaign"

In today's Washington Times RNLA Member Kyndra Rotunda takes a look at Elena Kagan's decision to ban military JAG officers and recruiters from speaking on campus while she was Dean of Harvard Law School.  In her Op Ed Rotunda goes in depth into the misguided stance that Kagan took while at Harvard and what impact that can have on her judicial philosophy.  Here are some of the key sections from the Op Ed:

This criticism stems from Ms. Kagan's 2005 decision to ban military Judge Advocate General (JAG) officers from entering Harvard Law School to meet and speak with law students who wanted to meet with the military recruiters because they were interested in becoming JAG officers. Why did she gag military lawyers? Because she disagreed with an existing federal statute that prohibited openly gay members from serving in the military.

[...]

What's more, Ms. Kagan clearly understood that this federal law was constitutional at the time, even before the Supreme Court ruled on the issue. In fact, the plaintiff's brief, filed in Rumsfeld v. Fair (2006), stipulated that the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" law was constitutional. So, Ms. Kagan wanted to prevent military lawyers from meeting on campus with willing students because the military followed a law she stipulated was constitutional.

Ms. Kagan objected to another federal law that said that if a university discriminated against military recruiters, then the federal government would cut off federal grants. She could have legally barred the military recruiters if she was willing to reject the federal money. Instead, she wanted to have her cake and eat it, too: She insisted that the federal government must continue giving federal grants to Harvard while Harvard discriminated against the military because it was complying with a federal statute ("Don't Ask, Don't Tell") that she stipulated was constitutional.

The final paragraph encapsulates why Kagan's record needs to be fully vetted by Republicans and the Judiciary committee:

The problem isn't just Ms. Kagan's lapse in judgment. The context is important, too. At the time of her gag order, the United States was embroiled in two wars and it was recruiting JAG officers to serve. JAGs deploy, too. I know - I used to be one. I served alongside a JAG officer from Harvard. Denying JAG officers and willing Harvard law students the opportunity to meet and talk about opportunities to serve in the military is not fair to the military - and it is not fair to law students who are interested in serving their country. It is, quite plainly, discrimination.

In the end, this is only one issue that has been brought up in the ramp up to her confirmation hearings.  I'm sure that many will be coming out in the days and weeks to come.