IN THE MAIL: Peter Schuck’s new book, Meditations of a Militant Moderate : Cool Views on Hot Topics. Not a great title in my opinion, but a very interesting-looking book, with chapters on immigration, racial reparations, military recruiting on campus, etc. Here’s a bit of what he says about the military recruitment issue:

The Supreme Court will decide, but let us assume that the schools are right on the law — that their interviewing rules as applied to the military do not violate Solomon (now amended to require “equal access” by recruiters) or that the First Amendment prevents Defense from sanctioning them. A key question remains: Should law schools have such policies in the first place?

Virtually all the schools (and the AALS) long ago answered affirmatively, but I have my doubts. I strongly favor barring discrimination against gays and protecting academic autonomy in the face of political pressures. But law schools shold be dedicated to a third norm, too, one that would discredit their position on this question. As a matter of principle, law schools should treat their students as mature individuals who have absorbed enough education, legal and otherwise, to assess the evidence and make their own choices among employwers without needing to be “protected” by the schools. Why should the schools screen employers’ practices for some of the most critical and well-informed young adults in the country? Can’t students make up their own minds on this?

They can, of course, but letting them do so deprives law schools of the opportunity to display moral superiority at low cost, which is what the recruitment policy is all about.