Harvard Law School Dean Elena Kagan said the decision, effective Tuesday, will allow the school to enforce its nondiscrimination policy without exception, "including to the military services."

Harvard had forbidden any recruiter from campus — military or otherwise — that couldn't sign off on the school's nondiscrimination policy. Harvard, like other schools, said the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy was discriminatory, because it forbids overt gays and lesbians from serving in the armed forces.

In 2002, the Pentagon told Harvard and other schools that the government would begin enforcing a law, called the Solomon Amendment, which permits the Defense Department to deny funds to colleges and universities that restrict military recruiting or ROTC on campus.

Harvard and other schools backed off their bans and allowed military recruiters on campus. A coalition of about two dozen law schools sued the government in 2003.

On Monday, the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals struck down the Solomon Amendment, saying it infringed on the free speech rights of law schools. The 2-1 vote overturned an earlier decision from a judge that the lawsuit was unlikely to succeed.