Court Ruling May Make Room for Women at All-Male School

The state can continue to support the Virginia Military Institute only if it forces the school to admit women or offers them similar training elsewhere, a federal appeals court said Monday.

A three-judge panel of the U.S. 4th Circuit Court of Appeals stopped short of ordering VMI to change its all-male admissions policy.

Instead, it sent a lawsuit filed by the federal government back to U.S. District Judge Jackson L. Kiser of Roanoke, Va., and ordered the state to implement a policy guaranteeing women’s rights.

VMI, which has 1,300 cadets in Lexington, Va., and The Citadel in Charleston, S.C., are the nation’s only all-male state-supported schools.

The Justice Department challenged VMI’s policy after receiving a complaint from a northern Virginia teen-age girl three years ago. The American Civil Liberties Union has a similar lawsuit pending against The Citadel.

VMI attorneys had argued that admitting women would undermine the school’s mission of training citizen-soldiers, but the Justice Department said adjustments could be made to accommodate women.

Virginia might decide to admit women to VMI, establish a similar school or program for women elsewhere, force the school to go private or pursue “other more creative options or combinations,” the court said.

VMI lawyer Robert H. Patterson Jr. said no decision had been made on whether to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, seek a rehearing before the entire federal appeals court or work with the state to develop alternatives.

Much of the debate over VMI’s policy focused on whether women could endure the school’s rigorous physical training. The appeals court said a less difficult physical regimen could be offered at an all-female school with the same objectives and procedures employed by VMI.