[media-credit name=’NICK PENZENSTADLER/Herald photo’ align=’alignright’ width=’336′][/media-credit]More than three-quarters of votes cast in a University of Wisconsin Law School Student Bar Association resolution fell in favor of opposing a controversial congressional amendment Monday evening.

The legislation, called the Solomon Amendment, was originally passed in 1995 and allows the federal government to withdraw funds from universities that do not allow military recruiters on campus.

However, law schools across the country have argued the legislation hurts their First Amendment rights in opposing President Bill Clinton's 1993 "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy concerning homosexuals in the military. Universities argued the policy went directly against school nondiscrimination policies, and they said strings attached through federal funding made it difficult to remove recruiters.

"The main purpose of the resolution was to tell fellow students [they have the] right of being gay, regardless of what had happened in Congress, [and] we support [them] and we are opposed and outraged at this blatant discrimination," said Samuel Rikkers, the resolution's primary sponsor.

Though SBA representatives began preparing the resolution last spring, the Solomon Amendment's constitutionality was questioned by the Supreme Court in March when a unanimous court decision upheld the amendment as not preventing the free speech rights of faculty or law schools.

UW political science professor Donald Downs said the Solomon Amendment never harmed universities' right to criticize the military or federal government for their "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy.

"There was no compelled association or anything along those lines, and the university is aptly free to criticize the military's policy," Downs said. "I think the court was right. No one's academic freedom was hurt by this, the university could speak all it wanted."

Despite the Supreme Court decision, law students felt passing the resolution was an important message to send.

Mark Noel, chair of QLaw, a UW law school student group concerned with LGBT issues and the law, said there were several reasons for passing the resolution. These reasons, he said, include clarifying the detriment caused to fellow students by violating UW's nondiscrimination policy, improving campus climate and preventing the loss of openly homosexual faculty and staff.

"The climate is already getting pretty bad," Noel said. "If you really care about these issues and these principles behind the nondiscrimination policy, you have to speak up."

Though final votes had not been certified as of press time, preliminary results show 76 percent of the nearly 300 votes favoring the resolution.

Still, the resolution did not pass without opposition.

The resolution was met by UW College Republicans, who posted fliers throughout the law school highlighting how a loss in federal funding would hurt UW research programs. One flier read, "A Vote for the Resolution is a Vote Against Parkinson's Disease Research."

College Republicans Vice Chair Lavonne Derksen said the group decided to support military recruiters after a law student who disagreed with the resolution approached them.

"He believes it was the first step toward trying to get the recruiters kicked off campus," Derksen said. "[Twelve million dollars] would be taken away if recruiters were kicked off campus."

The Solomon Amendment, Derksen added, was fair since universities that had entered the agreement were aware of the stipulations.

In addition, others questioned how opposing the Solomon Amendment would further gay rights in the military.

According to Downs, the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy hurts the military in acquiring prospective members, but attacking the Solomon Amendment is not the way to change the policy.

"The real issues [are] to get the military to stop discriminating and to protest," Downs said. "The Solomon Amendment, to me, is somewhat of a red herring."

Still, Rikkers said he could not ignore notions that gay or lesbian men and women could not serve in the military alongside straight men and women.

"This measure is one small step in changing social acceptance of discrimination toward gays and lesbians," Rikkers said. "At least I can tell my kids I wasn't complicit with Congress' decision in my silence. I think the Law School student body [says] that they're also not complicit in the silence."