Washington ? The Supreme Court agreed Monday to take up the Pentagon’s claim that it has an equal right to recruit new employees on the nation’s college campuses, despite its policy of discriminating against gays and lesbians.

Last year, a coalition of law schools won a ruling saying they had a right to refuse to make their facilities available to military recruiters. If that ruling were to stand, it would affect the rights of colleges and universities nationwide.

The justices said they would hear the Bush administration’s appeal in a case that poses a clash between government money and free speech.

The Pentagon says that because colleges and universities take federal funds, they have an obligation to give the military the same right to recruit on campus as other employers.

Congress adopted the Pentagon’s view in a spending provision known as the “Solomon Amendment.” It threatens to cut off federal money to colleges and universities that bar reserve officer training programs from campus or that deny military recruiters “equal access” to students on the same basis as other employers.

Two years ago, a coalition of several dozen law schools and some professors challenged the law as unconstitutional. They noted that since 1990, most of the nation’s law schools have adopted a strict policy of nondiscrimination. The policies say, among other things, that on-campus facilities will not be available to employers who “discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, sex, handicap or disability, age or sexual orientation.”

They said the Pentagon’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy discriminates against gays and lesbians. They also said they should not be forced to encourage students to meet with recruiters.