WASHINGTON (AP) - The U.S. Supreme Court confronts a gay rights issue this week, in a case that asks whether law schools can bar military recruiters because of the Pentagon's "don't ask, don't tell" policy.

Each fall, recruiters of all types jam law schools seeking top students in job fairs, receptions and interview sessions.

Justices will decide whether universities that accept government money must accommodate the military even if the schools forbid the participation of recruiters from public agencies and private companies that have discriminatory policies.

Law schools say they would welcome military recruiters if the Pentagon dropped its policy against openly gay personnel. Gay men and women may serve only if they keep their sexual orientation to themselves.

It is the first time that the court has dealt with a gay-rights related case since a contentious 2003 ruling that struck down laws criminalizing gay sex. In 2000, the court ruled that the Boy Scouts have the right to ban leaders who are openly gay.

The latest appeal pits the Pentagon against a group of law schools and professors. The justices hear arguments tomorrow.

The government contends if it provides financial support to a college - with grants for research, for example - then in exchange it should be able to recruit "the very students whose education it has supported." In this case, that means having the ability to recruit students, a tool made more essential since the Sept. 11 attacks.

Federal financial support of colleges tops $35 billion (euro30 billion) a year.

"Part of the cultural meaning of the case is bound up in questions about gay rights," said Cornell Law School Prof. Trevor Morrison, a former clerk to Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. "Indirectly, it's about the 'don't ask, don't tell policy.'"