What did the Supreme Court say in the “VMI case” about publicly-funded single-sex education?
In 1991, the United States Justice Department initiated a lawsuit against the Virginia Military Institute (VMI), which had been a males-only college since its founding in 1839. The Justice Department asserted that VMI, as a state school, could not legally refuse to accept women. Although the federal District Court initially ruled in favor of VMI, the Circuit Court, on appeal, agreed with the Justice Department: the state of Virginia could not fund a single-sex public college for men as long as there was no comparable state school for women. The Circuit Court offered three remedies: either 1) begin accepting women at VMI, or 2) stop accepting state funds, or 3) develop a “comparable” alternative for women. VMI and the state of Virginia chose the third option. They created the “Virginia Women’s Institute for Leadership,” to be located at Mary Baldwin College, a private college for women. The Circuit Court approved the alternative, but the United States Justice Department didn’t like it,
