Yale Law Students Gagged in Protest

For the second straight year, Yale Law School students protested the presence of military recruiters at the school’s career fair because of the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy on gays and lesbians.

About 40 students dressed in interview attire and gags stood on the school’s steps on Wednesday, then walked to a nearby hotel where Navy and Air Force recruiters had appointments to interview five students, reports the Yale Daily News.

More than 45 faculty members filed a lawsuit in 2003 challenging the Defense Department’s threat to withhold federal funding from universities that prohibit recruiters from visiting campus. While that case was pending, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of the Pentagon’s policy in a different case last year.

Law School Dean Harold Koh quoted a passage of the court’s decision to the protesters: “Nothing about recruiting suggests that law schools agree with any speech by recruiters, and nothing … restricts what the law schools may say about the military’s policies.”