THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, September 28, 1994 TAG: 9409280011
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A14 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
LENGTH: Medium: 56 lines
Oral arguments are scheduled for today in the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals in the case of United States vs. Virginia Military Institute, the Justice Department's lawsuit to force VMI to end its male-only admissions policy. On the line is not only VMI's century and a half traditions, but perhaps the future of single-sex education anywhere in the country.
Up to this point, the federal government has always maintained that cases of sex discrimination should be weighed using what the federal courts call ``intermediate scrutiny.'' This is a looser standard than that used for racial discrimination, which is evaluated on the basis of ``strict'' scrutiny.
The Justice Department will be arguing tomorrow that strict scrutiny should be extended to cases of sexual discrimination. A finding in favor of that standard could spell the end of single-sex education as an option, either in the public or private spheres and at any level.
The VMI case began when the Bush Justice Department filed suit against VMI in March 1990, charging the institution's admissions policy violated the 14th Amendment. Both the district court and the 4th Circuit upheld the validity of single-sex education, but the latter held out for creating an alternative system of single-sex military education for women. VMI agreed to establish such a program at Mary Baldwin College, called the Virginia Military Institute for Leadership.
The issue before the court tomorrow, theoretically, is the narrow one of the acceptability of this remedy. As has been pointed out by Amy Blair, executive director of the Independent Women's Forum in Arlington, however, an adverse finding from VMI's perspective will mean that any sort of distinction in the treatment of the sexes will be declared in opposition to public policy. That means any policy that fosters such separation cannot be supported, directly or indirectly, by government.
Thus, any single-sex program in state-supported schools, including those that have been instituted by African Americans in many inner-city school districts, would almost certainly be overturned. Single-sex private women's colleges, such as Sweet Briar, Hollins, Randolph-Macon and Mary Baldwin would be likely to eventually lose their tax exemptions under the so-called ``Bob Jones'' rule, which prohibits tax exemptions for schools that discriminate by race.
It is unlikely that most Americans would support ending single-sex education as an option for the country's young people. Indeed, it is growing in popularity among many racial and income groups. Why, then, is the Justice Department embarked on a crusade the effect of which would be to destroy single-sex education? The only possible answer is that it is pursuing through the courts a politically correct social agenda that it could not possibly enact through Congress. by CNB