United States v. Virginia

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 and the precedent established in Mississippi University for Women v. Hogan (1982). In that case, the Supreme Court ruled that men could not be excluded from Mississippi's state-supported nursing college.

During a six day trial, the district court examined the 150-year history of the institution, which was founded in 1839 by the Virginia legislature to produce "citizen-soldiers, educated and honorable men who are suited for leadership in civilian life and who can provide military leadership when necessary." The court also looked at the "adversative" method used to produce these "citizen-soldiers." The training "emphasizes physical rigor, mental stress, absolute equality of treatment, absence of privacy, minute regulation of behavior, and indoctrination of values . . . designed to foster in V.M.I. cadets doubts about previous beliefs and experiences and to instill in cadets new values . . . [in] a hostile, spartan environment . . ."

In 1991, the district court ruled that "diversity in education" was a legitimate state interest. Both V.M.I.'s male-only admissions policy and its "distinctive educational methods" were substantially related to this legitimate state. Therefore, V.M.I.'s exclusion of women was upheld. The United States appealed.