United States v. Virginia

Background

The United States sued the Commonwealth of Virginia after a female high-school student was denied admission to the Virginia Military Institute (VMI), the State’s all-male public military college. VMI trains “citizen-soldiers” through a rigorous adversative program of barracks life, physical training, and strict discipline. Virginia responded by creating a separate women-only program at Mary Baldwin College called the Virginia Women’s Institute for Leadership (VWIL); lower courts disagreed about whether VWIL was an adequate remedy.

Reasoning

The central question was whether excluding all women from VMI violates the Fourteenth Amendment’s promise of equal protection. Applying its heightened review for sex classifications — requiring an “exceedingly persuasive justification” — the Court examined the trial record. It found that some women can meet VMI’s physical and academic standards, that VMI’s mission and methods are not inherently unsuitable to women, and that Virginia failed to show a genuine purpose justifying categorical exclusion. The Court held Virginia’s all-male policy unconstitutional and concluded the VWIL program did not provide women equal opportunity.

Real world impact

Women who are willing and able to undergo VMI’s training cannot be categorically barred from this state-supported educational opportunity. States that support single-sex public institutions must either admit qualified members of the excluded sex or create truly comparable alternatives. The ruling requires governments and courts to scrutinize whether separate programs offer substantially equal tangible and intangible benefits.

Dissents or concurrances

Chief Justice Rehnquist agreed with the outcome but not the Court’s analysis. Justice Scalia dissented, urging deference to tradition and the factual findings of the lower courts.