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UNITED STATES V. VIRGINIA This legal memorandum

This legal memorandum discusses and analyzes the constitutional law applicable to gender specific institutions of higher learning, as established by the Supreme Court in its seven to one decision in United States v. Virginia, 518 U.S. 515 (1996). Its overall conclusion is that after this case it is for all practical purposes constitutionally impermissible for institutions of higher learning to maintain single-sex admissions policies or to prevent either gender from being eligible to participate in undergraduate activities. Some nuances and ambiguities of meaning and interpretation were left open by the Court's ruling, most of which had more to do with the attempt by Justice Ruth Ginsburg in the majority opinion to reconcile the majority opinion with prior Supreme Court precedents than they did with the substantive content of the law. These interstitial uncertainties leave open relatively little room for the doubt that this case represents a fairly definitive change in the law in this area.

Summary of Holding and Its Impact on VMI.

The Supreme Court's holding was that the 157 year old all-male admission policy of the Virginia Military Institute (VMI), a public university chartered under Virginia law and the recipient of federal financial assistance, violated the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment (sec. 2). In addition, the Court found that the remedial program adopted by VMI to cure the previous pattern of gender discrimination found by the federal courts below by setting up a separate and parallel program for women, the Virginia Women's Institute for Leadership (VWIL) which the District Court and the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals had found satisfied the Equal Protection Clause, United States v. Virginia et al., 854 F. Supp. 471, 476 (W.D. Va. 1994), affirmed 44 F.3d 1229 (4th Cir. 1995), did not pass constitutional muster because it did not offer women an opportunity to experience the rigorous military training ...

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UNITED STATES V. VIRGINIA This legal memorandum. (1969, December 31). In LotsofEssays.com. Retrieved 20:12, March 28, 2024, from https://www.lotsofessays.com/viewpaper/1702258.html