United States v. Virginia - Significance, Sex Discrimination At V.m.i., History Repeats Itself, A Catch -22

United States v. Virginia - Further Readings

United States v. Virginia - Significance

The last two state-supported all-male colleges were forced to admit women or forego state funding. The U.S. Supreme Court has long grouped race, national origin, and religion as "inherently suspect" classifications for Fourteenth Amendment purposes--meaning that any legislation targeting these groups must pass a "strict scrutiny" test. This test determines if the proposed law serves a compelling s…

United States v. Virginia - Sex Discrimination At V.m.i.

On 1 March 1990, the U.S. Department of Justice sued V.M.I. after a female high school student complained of the school's all-male admissions policy. In the two years prior to this complaint, approximately 300 young women had had their inquiries rebuffed by the institute. The United States contended that V.M.I.'s exclusion of women violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment a…

United States v. Virginia - History Repeats Itself

United States v. Virginia - A Catch -22

The court ruled that the exclusion of women from the type of education provided at V.M.I. violated the Equal Protection Clause, but it also found that single-gender enrollment formed the basis of "the unique characteristics of V.M.I.'s program." But admitting women would so change V.M.I. that their admission would destroy the "unique characteristics" women sought. Therefore, Virginia's violation o…

United States v. Virginia - A New Look To The Court

Ruth Bader Ginsburg, a recent appointee to the Supreme Court, shared the president's desire to establish a strict scrutiny standard for sex discrimination. As a civil rights lawyer in the 1970s, Ginsburg had helped to win the first women's rights case by using the Fourteenth Amendment, Reed v. Reed (1971). In the 1973 case Frontiero v. Richardson, she had come within one vote of persuading the Cou…