United States v. Virginia - History Repeats Itself

Circuit Court judge Paul V. Niemeyer delivered the opinion of the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals on 5 October 1992. He noted that in May of 1864, during the Civil War, V.M.I. cadets bravely fought Union troops at New Market, Virginia. Now, he said, "the combatants have again confronted each other, but this time the venue is in this court." He pointed out that:

the outcome of each confrontation finds resolution in the Equal Protection Clause. When the Civil War was over, to assure the abolition of slavery and the federal government's supervision over that policy, all states, north and south, yielded substantial sovereignty to the federal government in the ratification of the Fourteenth Amendment, and every state for the first time was expressly directed by federal authority not to deny any person within the state's jurisdiction "equal protection of the laws." The [United States] government now relies on this clause to attack V.M.I.'s admissions policy.