Last month, Dartmouth and eight other educational institutions joined an existing amicus curiae brief in the U.S. Court of Appeals Second Circuit, questioning the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy with regard to homosexuals.
Amicus curiae briefs, or "friends of the court" briefs, are often filed by organizations and groups not directly involved in a lawsuit to express concern in those cases.
The amicus brief had been filed earlier by the American Council of Education and nine other national educational associations in connection with the Able v. United States case.
Appalachian State, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the Oregon State Board of Higher Education, Princeton University, Rutgers University, Syracuse University, Tufts University and Washington University also joined the amicus brief.
The plaintiffs in Able v. United States lost their case that the "don't ask, don't tell" policy violates the First and Fifth Amendments to the Constitution in July 1996. The case is currently before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. That court heard oral argument April 2.
While joining the brief will not allow the College to participate in oral argument, it does allow Dartmouth to express support for the plaintiffs-appelles in Able v. United States.
Under the "don't ask, don't tell, don't pursue" policy, commanders may not ask service members their sexual orientation, and gays may serve as long as they do not volunteer information about their sexual orientation or engage in homosexual acts. Otherwise, they can be honorably discharged.
Currently the College's Reserve Officer's Training Corps program follows the "don't ask, don't tell" policy.
According to the ROTC captain Paul Lehto, if a student is openly homosexual, he or she will be expelled from the ROTC program.
Lehto, who has been at the College for over a year, said during his tenure he has never had to expel a student for homosexual behavior. He also does not know of any such incident occurring at the College.
"The ROTC must abide by military rules," Lehto said. If the military policy were changed to include open homosexuals, then the College ROTC program could include them, too.
Lehto said he does not think the College is entirely correct in its stance against the federal government.
"The 1964 Civil Rights Act says you can't discriminate on the basis of sex, religion or race," Lehto said. "There is no mention of sexual orientation."
"If Dartmouth wants to be consistent and include sexual orientation [as a basis for discrimination] over the federal rules, they shouldn't accept federal funding, and move instead to entirely private funding," Lehto said.
In September 1991, Dartmouth's Board of Trustees issued a statement promising to terminate the ROTC program unless the military lifted the ban on gays by April 1993. This deadline was later extended by a year.
In April 1994, the Trustees decided to continue to offer the ROTC program, but directed that the College should make concerted efforts, including amicus briefs, challenging military discrimination against homosexuals.
The Clinton administration adopted the "don't ask, don't tell" policy in 1993 as a compromise replacement to the previous policy of excluding homosexuals as a threat to morale and fighting ability.
Since the policy went into effect in 1994, the number of discharges has increased: 597 in 1994, 722 in 1995, 850 in 1996 and 997 in 1997, according to Pentagon statistics.
The U.S. Supreme Court has upheld the policy against several challenges. Last October, the Court decided to refuse to hear any challenges to the policy this session.
