RULING DEFENDED BY VMI

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, January 5, 1992                   TAG: 9201050166
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B3   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY  
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: RICHMOND                                LENGTH: Medium
RULING DEFENDED BY VMI
Attorneys for Virginia Military Institute say the U.S. Justice Department ignored the evidence presented at trial last April when a federal judge ruled that VMI could continue to deny admission to women.
In a rebuttal brief filed Friday in the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, VMI's lawyers said the Justice Department's appeal is flawed because it misses the point of earlier testimony.
"Virtually ignoring the record, the government argues on appeal that the policy is based on stereotypes and that the admission of qualified women can be accomplished without changing the VMI program," the VMI brief says. "Both of these contentions are wrong."
The brief says the testimony of educational experts, including the government's, proved those contentions are wrong.
VMI attorneys noted that the institution faces not only the Justice Department and an array of legal allies, including the American Civil Liberties Union and the National Organization for Women, but also "a stultifying code of political correctness that would sacrifice educational excellence upon the altar of superficial equality.
"Against all this, standing like a stone wall, are the facts."
In November, the Justice Department appealed the ruling of U.S. District Judge Jackson Kiser. In its appeal, the government said VMI's exclusion of women is simply a function of "history and tradition."
"But history and tradition, like the fear of change, cannot justify the state denying women a benefit simply because they are women," according to the Justice Department's appeal.
The government contends that VMI's admissions policy violates the U.S. Constitution's equal protection clause.
Oral arguments in the appeal are tentatively scheduled for February.

by Archana Subramaniam by CNB