ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, June 27, 1996 TAG: 9606270071
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: ALLISON BLAKE STAFF WRITER
NOTE: Lede
In a strongly worded opinion that acknowledges the success of historic Virginia Military Institute, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that the men's college must admit women or give up public funds.
The state of Virginia "has shown no 'exceedingly persuasive justification' for withholding from women qualified for the experience premier training of the kind VMI affords," Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg wrote for the 7-1 majority.
The decision was a blow to VMI's famously tight-knit alumni.
"Many alumni will be heartbroken when they hear it," VMI Superintendent Josiah Bunting said at a news conference on campus in Lexington. "This is not a case of an alumni body wanting to remain exclusive by keeping people out, but rather wanting to hang on to something that made a great difference in their lives."
Joining the majority was Chief Justice William Rehnquist, who agreed that publicly funded VMI cannot discriminate against women, but issued his own concurring opinion. The lone dissent came from Justice Antonin Scalia. Justice Clarence Thomas did not take part in the case because his son, Jamal, is a cadet at VMI.
The ruling reversed a 1995 ruling by the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that decreed the publicly funded Virginia Women's Institute for Leadership at private Mary Baldwin College in Staunton a suitable alternative to admitting women to VMI. Last fall, 42 women matriculated in VWIL.
Although the decision does not directly order VMI to admit women, it is so tightly worded that no other conclusion can be reached, lawyers said Wednesday. Some VMI officials said the school may look into going private, an expensive option. The school will meet with its attorneys and finish digesting the decision before its board of visitors meets July 11-13.
Robert Patterson of Richmond, VMI's lead attorney during its long battle, and an alumnus, said the Supreme Court's action could signal the end to all single-sex education.
"I wouldn't want to say I'm so much surprised. I'm very disappointed," Patterson said. "I'm disheartened, and I think the results of the majority opinion will almost be a national tragedy before it's over.
"First of all, it kills, effectively, all single-sex public education, now and for the future, regardless of whatever dictates may come in the field of education."
"My interpretation is, yes, we have to admit women," said Bill Berry, the rector, or president, of the VMI Board of Visitors.
Equal-rights advocates were elated with the court's ruling.
"What can I say? It's a wonderful decision," said Sara Mandelbaum, a lawyer with the ACLU's Women's Legal Project in New York. "It's pretty clear, the proper remedy for this violation is simply to admit women."
The decision also means "there's no wiggle room in here for The Citadel at all," Mandelbaum said.
"We see this as a great victory," said Judy Appelbaum, senior counsel for the National Women's Law Center in Washington. The decision means "a public institution can't slam the door of opportunity shut based on stereotypes and overgeneralizations about what women can and cannot do."
The U.S. Justice Department sued VMI six years ago for sex discrimination on behalf of a still-unnamed high school senior who wanted to go to school there.
"The Supreme Court has given life to the promise in the Constitution that all of us deserve an equal shot at educational opportunity," Attorney General Janet Reno said Wednesday in a statement. "This Justice Department has worked long and hard on this case to convey one message: We support opportunity for men and women, all men and women, to prove themselves as individuals."
The Justice Department and many women's advocates have maintained all along that VWIL simply wasn't equal to 157-year-old VMI. Although the VWIL women take ROTC, they are not required to live all four years as a group, unlike the cadets living in VMI's famed barracks; instead of the adversative "rat line," the VWIL students participate in leadership training classes.
What happens next for VMI remains cloudy, and speculation centered around the chance the school could decide to go private. Such a move would require millions of dollars and is just one alternative the board of visitors may consider at its meeting next month, said Berry, the board rector.
And the school would not want to go private if it were not certain of succeeding, said Edwin "Pete" Cox of Richmond, president of VMI's Alumni Association.
"We don't want to do anything out of - call it spite - as though, 'I'm going to pick up my blocks and go home.' That attitude is not present," Cox said.
VMI would have to be careful if it did go private, since it is "potentially liable for a new act of discrimination, in trying to avoid an obligation to comply with the Constitution," Columbia University law Professor Joan Bertin said.
On Wednesday, state leaders pledged to comply with the court ruling.
"The Supreme Court has spoken, and Virginia will go forward with honor and dignity to comply," Attorney General Jim Gilmore said.
Using similar language, Gov. George Allen said, "The nation's highest court has spoken." But, he added, the decision "suggests there are several different options open to us, and in the days ahead I will be consulting with Attorney General Gilmore, the General Assembly leadership and the VMI community to determine an appropriate course of action."
In the meantime, it seems likely that the impact of the high court's ruling may spark debate on single-sex education for some time to come.
Ann Massie, a constitutional law professor next door to VMI at Washington & Lee University, said the ruling affects only the two public men's military colleges: VMI; and The Citadel, in Charleston, S.C. The justices are "not foreclosing the possibility the state could come up with single-gender education for both men and women, or boys and girls on a lower level. It certainly doesn't affect private schools."
Anita Blair, a member of the VMI Board of Visitors, who heads the conservative Independent Women's Forum, said the action will "chill experimentation."
"We recognized from the beginning this would have as much of an adverse affect on women as it does on men. Many of us come out of a single-sex education, many of us feel it was a huge benefit to us, and feel it ought to be available to rich or poor," she said.
After the VMI board meets next month, the case is expected to return to the Roanoke courtroom of U.S. District Judge Jackson Kiser for further action.
LENGTH: Long : 122 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: 1. File/1990. VMI rats line up for early-morningby CNBformation drills at the campus in Lexington. The Supreme Court ruled
Wednesday that future corps must include women if VMI remains a
public school. 2. STEPHANIE KLEIN-DAVIS/Staff. Gen. Josiah Bunting
speaks to the press at VMI Wednesday. color. VMI first classmen
(seniors) Brian Martin (left) and Daniel Roach were disappointed by
the Supreme Court's ruling.