United+States+v.+Virginia

//United States, Petitioner v. Virginia, et al.//

Argued: January 17th, 1996 Decided: June 26th, 1996
 * //Important Dates://**


 * //Premise//**: Does the 14th Amendment's guarantee of "equal protection of the laws" prohibit a state government from maintaining an all-male military college?


 * //Background://** A female student filed a complaint with the Department of Justice charging the Virginia Military Institute (VMI) with illegal sex discrimination in violation of the 14th Amendment. VMI created a plan to offer state-supported military education for women in the Virginia Women's Institute for Leadership. This was ruled to not even meet the standards of the now discredited //Plessy v. Ferguson.//


 * //Opinion of the Court://** Delivered by Justice Ginsburg. Virginia makes no provisions for the women, which is not equal protection as guaranteed by the Constitution. "Women seeking and fit for a VMI-quality education cannot be offered anything else"


 * //Dissenting Opinion://** Given by Justice Scalia. He strongly objected, lamenting that the Court shut down an institution "that had served the people of the Commonwealth of Virginia with pride and distinction for over a century and a half." He argued that single-sex public schools should/could be constitutionally permitted for those who wish.

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