Judge Lets 2nd Woman Take Up Citadel Battle

A federal judge agreed Tuesday that another woman may take up where Shannon Faulkner left off in the fight to get women into the corps of cadets at The Citadel.

U.S. District Judge C. Weston Houck formally dismissed Faulkner as a plaintiff after a 2 1/2-year court battle to become a cadet at the all-male school.

Nancy Mellette, 17, a senior at a North Carolina military preparatory academy, replaces Faulkner, who dropped out of The Citadel in August after less than a week as the first female cadet at the state military college.

“It seems to me Ms. Faulkner’s claim in this case is moot,” Houck said. “She has brought a lawsuit to obtain a particular result, she has attained the result and for all intents and purposes has voluntarily given up the benefits of that result.”

Houck said the court battle--now focused on whether a women’s leadership program at Converse College in Spartanburg, S.C. is a legal alternative to women at The Citadel--will go to trial on Nov. 13.