Virginia Supreme Court Case Study

The United States v. Virginia court case was debated on Jan 17, 1996 at Virginia Military Institute. The advocates involved were Paul Bender, who argued the case for the United States and Theodore B. Olson, who argued the case on behalf of Virginia. The U.S was the petitioner, while Virginia was the accused. According to "FindLaw's United States Supreme Court Case and Opinions.” the case was about Virginia Military Institute violating the fourteenth Amendments of Equal Protection by maintaining a public founded Virginia Military Institute as an all-male institution. According to "United States v. Virginia 518 U.S. 515 (1996)." Justia Law, the intention of the VMI was to create “citizen soldiers”, men who are prepared for leadership in civilian life and in military service. The VMI was trying to train male leaders of the future excluding the females.
Also, according to "Supreme Court Rules in VMI Case” The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, there was a dissenting opinion by Justice Scalia:
"Today the Court shuts down an institution that has served the people of the Commonwealth of Virginia with
pride and distinction for over a century and a half.... As to precedent it drastically revises our established standards for reviewing sex-based classifications. And as to history: it counts for nothing the long tradition, enduring down to the present, of men's military colleges supported by both States and the Federal Government....
Furthermore, the Supreme Court finally ruled on June 26, 1996.
The Supreme Court ruled that the Commonwealth of Virginia violated the Equal Protection Clause by a 7-1 vote maintaining the publicly funded Virginia Military Institute as an all-male institution. The Court reasoned that Virginia did not show an “exceedingly persuasive justification” for excluding all women from the citizen-soldier training. The district court ruled in favor of VMI so I think Virginia won. The court rejected the equal protection challenge pressed by the Unites States. Virginia proposed a parallel program for women known as the Virginia Women’s Institute for Leadership (VWIL), located at Mary Baldwin College a private liberal arts school for women to remedy the constitutional violation. The district court later decided that the plan met the requirements of the Equal Protection
Clause According to "United States v. Virginia." Law and Higher Education. 2015, the United States v. Virginia case ruling had a significant impact on the Virginia Military Institute and also on the people. The VMI court’s broad rejection of any policy that excludes one gender remains a cornerstone of higher education law. In total, public institutions were made to open all programs to all persons, irrespective of gender. The first female cadets were admitted to VMI in 1997. According to Blair (1997), contrasting the characteristics of gender and race, Justice Ginsburg admits that
"Inherent differences" between men and women do exist, but decrees that actual physical differences are not cause "for denigration of the members of either sex or for artificial constraints on an individual's opportunity" (15).