United States v. Virginia, 518 U.S. 515 (1996) p.704

SUBJECT

equal protection: gender

RATIONAL

One arguement was that VMI had to be all male in order to provide the type of education it is known for. This was found to be not a legitimate end.

MAJORTIYT:
(1) under the applicable standard of heightened review, Virginia's exclusion of women denied, to women the equal protection of the laws that was guaranteed by the Fourteenth Amendment, as
(a) there was no persuasive evidence that VMI's male-only admission policy was in furtherance of a policy of diversity, and
(b) the exceedingly persuasive justification required for equal protection purposes was not established by Virginia's argument that VMI's adversative method provided benefits that could not be made available, unmodified, to women; and
(2) Virginia's proffered VWIL (woman's school) remedy did not cure the constitutional violation, because
(a) Virginia had shown no exceedingly persuasive justification for withholding from qualified women premier training of the kind which VMI afforded, and
(b) Virginia had not shown substantial equality in the separate educational opportunities which Virginia would support at VMI and VWIL.

SCALIA DISSENT:
(1) the Supreme Court, in order to shut down an institution that had served the people of Virginia with pride and distinction for more than a century and a half, improperly rejected the factual findings of two courts below, swept aside precedent concerning the review of sex-based classifications, and ignored the nation's long tradition of government-supported men's military colleges; and
(2) Virginia's election to fund one public all-male institution and one on the adversative model--and to concentrate its resources in a single entity which served both these interests in diversity--was substantially related to Virginia's important educational interests.

Created on: Monday, January 31, 2000 at 13:01:51 (PST)