A former Harvard Law School dean has penned a column in The Wall Street Journal that seeks to clarify what Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan did and did not do during her time as dean of the law school in relation to military recruiting on campus.

Noting the stream of misinformation about Kagan's time at the campus and her actions related to military policy, former dean Robert C. Clark states that Kagan was never anti-military, never denied recruiting on campus, and merely followed a policy in place before she arrived.

“As dean, Ms. Kagan basically followed a strategy toward military recruiting that was already in place. Here, some background may be helpful: Since 1979, the law school has had a policy requiring all employers who wish to use the assistance of the School's Office of Career Services (OCS) to schedule interviews and recruit students to sign a statement that they do not discriminate on the basis of race, gender, sexual orientation, and so on,” Clark wrote.

“For years, the U.S. military, because of its 'don't ask, don't tell' policy, was not able to sign such a statement and so did not use OCS. It did, however, regularly recruit on campus because it was invited to do so by an official student organization, the Harvard Law School Veterans Association.The symbolic effect of this special treatment of military recruiters was important, but the practical effect on recruiting logistics was minimal ”

Clark later added: “Outside observers may disagree with the moral and policy judgments made by those at Harvard Law School. But it would be very wrong to portray Elena Kagan as hostile to the U.S. military. Quite the opposite is true.”