Case: 21-51178
Document: 00516474571
Page: 26
Date Filed: 09/16/2022
No. 21-51178
The cornerstone of the Court’s reasoning was that the parade
sponsors were “intimately connected” to the message communicated by the
parade. Id. at 576. This intimate connection was crucial, the Court held,
because forcing the sponsors to include a particular float was tantamount to
forcing the sponsors to speak: “[W]hen dissemination of a view contrary to
one’s own is forced upon a speaker intimately connected with the
communication advanced, the speaker’s right to autonomy over the message
is compromised.” Id. at 576; see also id. at 573 (emphasizing that “a speaker
has the autonomy to choose the content of his own message,” including by
“decid[ing] what not to say”) (quotation omitted).
The final case that’s particularly relevant to our discussion is Rumsfeld
v. Forum for Academic and Institutional Rights, Inc., 547 U.S. 47 (2006).
Certain law schools sought to restrict military recruiting on their campuses
because of the military’s policies on sexual orientation. Id. at 51. Congress
responded by enacting the Solomon Amendment, which denied federal
funding to schools that did not give military recruiters “access to students
that is at least equal in quality and scope to the access provided other
potential employers.” Id. at 54 (quotation omitted). An organization of law
schools sued, arguing that the Solomon Amendment violated the First
Amendment. The Supreme Court disagreed. It unanimously held that “the
First Amendment would not prevent Congress from directly imposing the
Solomon Amendment’s access requirement,” and the statute thus did not
place an unconstitutional condition on the receipt of federal funds. Id. at 60.
The Court first held that the Solomon Amendment did not
impermissibly force the law schools to speak. Id. at 61–62. The Court
recognized that “recruiting assistance provided by the schools often includes
elements of speech”—like sending emails or posting bulletin board notices
on the recruiter’s behalf. Id. at 61. But the Court determined that this speech
was “plainly incidental to the Solomon Amendment’s regulation of
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