United States v. Virginia

Facts of the Case

The vast majority of constitutional challenges involve private parties suing the government. Yet, VMI was an action by the federal government against the government of the Commonwealth of Virginia. In 1990, the Justice Department, responding to a complaint from a female high school student, sued Virginia, contending that having an all-male institution of higher education violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. After a federal trial court in Virginia decided that the single-sex admissions policy did not violate the Fourteenth Amendment, the Fourth Circuit disagreed. The Fourth Circuit vacated the trial court's original order on the ground that commonwealth officials had not advanced a justification showing why they should offer a program for men and not for women. However, the Fourth Circuit did not order the admission of women. Rather, the court presented officials in Virginia with a choice: They could either admit women or establish a parallel program that was all female.

Virginia chose to establish a parallel program, the Virginia Women's Institute for Leadership, at an all-female private institution, Mary Baldwin College. Although there were significant differences in the academic quality of the two programs, the federal trial court approved Virginia's alternative program. On appeal, a sharply divided Fourth Circuit affirmed. The Supreme Court agreed to hear the case.

The Supreme Court's Ruling

By a vote of seven to one, in an opinion authored by Justice Ginsburg, with Justice Thomas not participating, the Supreme Court reversed in striking down the Fourth Circuit's second order while reinstating its initial determination. According to the Court, in equal protection cases involving gender, state governments bear the burden of establishing “exceedingly persuasive” justifications for any gender classification. The Court explained that gender classifications are upheld only if classifications are substantially related to important governmental interests.

The Supreme Court then proceeded to reject each of the interests proffered by Virginia for wishing to continue to operate the VMI as an all-male institution. First, the Court found that prohibiting women from enrolling at the institute did not contribute to a diversity of educational opportunities in Virginia. Second, the Court rejected the idea that admitting women would require substantial changes to the institute's curriculum. In this regard, the Court noted that because women had successfully integrated into the federal service academies, the refusal to admit females as students was unconstitutional.

...