Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, April 14, 1995 TAG: 9504140044
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: CHARLESTON, S.C. LENGTH: Medium
The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, Va., ruled 2-1 that Faulkner's exclusion from the all-male corps violates her constitutional right to equal protection. It gave the state school four months to find an alternative or admit her.
Both sides immediately claimed victory: Faulkner said it moves her a step closer to the corps; the state said the court upheld public single-sex education, as long as it provided for both sexes.
``It's one more victory in a great war,'' said Faulkner, 20, who has attended day classes under a judge's order but has not yet worn the gray cadet's uniform. If she does not become part of the corps by August, she would not be eligible under school rules.
``We're basically where we were last summer, playing `beat the clock' again,'' she said. ``I'm very optimistic about getting in; it's just, how are things going to work out.''
The state of South Carolina has no plans to appeal Thursday's order but will move ahead with its alternative plan, said state Attorney General Charlie Condon.
``We're pleased with the decision. It says very clearly that single-gender education is constitutional ... it's just that you have to have a substantively comparable program,'' he said.
The appeals court said The Citadel could come up with an alternative plan, similar to one approved for Virginia Military Institute, the only other state military school in the nation.
The 4th Circuit said VMI in Lexington, Va., may stay all-male by creating a women's leadership program at Mary Baldwin College.
``The VMI decision ... placed South Carolina on notice that it needed to pursue a remedy to address its similar situation,'' Judge Paul V. Niemeyer wrote in the majority opinion.
Judge Kenneth K. Hall agreed with Niemeyer, but wrote in a separate opinion that ``I am convinced that we have embarked on a path that will inevitably fall short of providing women their deserved equal access to important avenues of power and responsibility.''
The Citadel and VMI have argued that the schools should remain all-male to preserve educational diversity.
``I suspect that these cases have very little to do with education,'' Hall wrote. ``They instead have very much to do with wealth, power, and the ability of those who have it now to determine who will have it later.''
Judge Clyde H. Hamilton dissented, saying the state, not the federal courts, should determine its educational policy.
``I cannot accept the majority's invitation to be a party to the destruction of a venerable institution that ... provides a pedagogically justifiable, unique educational experience which is attributed to its single-gender status,'' Hamilton wrote.
Dawes Cooke, The Citadel's lawyer, said officials have been working on an alternative for women.
``I like to think we're in good position to meet the court's requirements,'' Cooke said.
The Citadel has proposed spending as much as $5 million to create a South Carolina Women's Leadership Institute to subsidize women's training. However, neither of the two private women's schools in the state have agree to participate.
``They [the court] wanted to give South Carolina the benefit of the doubt that they absolutely could not come up with a program,'' said Sara Mandelbaum, an attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union assisting Faulkner. ``I doubt they are going to be able to come up with anything.''
Any plan would have to be approved by U.S. District Judge C. Weston Houck, who ruled in July that Faulkner's rights had been violated and ordered her admitted to the corps immediately. The Citadel then appealed.
Faulkner was accepted to The Citadel after she asked that all references to gender be removed from her high school transcript.
When the school discovered she was a woman, it revoked the invitation, and Faulkner sued in March 1993, claiming the all-male policy violated her constitutional rights.
by CNB