With its ruling that the Virginia Military Institute (VMI) must admit women or go private, the Supreme Court ends a centuries-long tradition of barring women from publicly-supported educational institutions. Women will almost certainly be admitted to VMI starting in 1997.

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, in her opinion for the majority, countered Virginia’s argument that the Virginia Military Institute, by remaining all-male, provided "diversity" of educational opportunities for Virginia residents. "However liberally this plan serves the State’s sons, it makes no provision whatever for her daughters. That is not equal protection," Ginsburg pointed out.

The seven-to-one ruling in United States v. Virginia, with only Justice Antonin Scalia dissenting (and Justice Clarence Thomas sitting out the ruling because his son attends VMI), requires the Virginia Military Institute to admit women or to go private. The VMI governing board voted in July to admit women. The school’s alumni may offer a proposal to privatize VMI, which would require them to raise tens of millions of dollars to buy the campus and replace the state funding they now receive. The Supreme Court found that the women’s program set up by VMI at Mary Baldwin College, a private women’s college, was not comparable to VMI’s education and training.

"At last, ‘separate but equal’ for women and girls in military academies goes to the dust bin of history — where it belongs," said Eleanor Smeal, President of the Feminist Majority Foundation. "Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s historic decision is a step closer to the ultimate goal of a constitutional guarantee of an Equal Rights Amendment for women."

In its lawsuit against VMI, the U.S. Justice Department had asked the Supreme Court to establish that sex discrimination should be judged on the same basis as race discrimination. Currently, race discrimination is judged under the highest level of judicial review, called "strict scrutiny." This means that any segregation by race is automatically suspect unless the government can prove a "compelling state interest." Sex discrimination is now judged on a lower standard, called "intermediate scrutiny." In the VMI ruling, the Supreme Court did not make any changes to the scrutiny level of sex discrimination.

"The women’s movement must fight on until we achieve the highest level of judicial review and constitutional protection against sex discrimination," said Smeal.

The ruling also affects The Citadel, the nation’s only other all-male, publicly-supported educational institution. Days after the ruling, The Citadel’s governing board voted unanimously to accept women starting this fall. The school was already under court order to admit women pending the outcome of the Supreme Court case. Shannon Faulkner was the first woman admitted to The Citadel’s Corps of Cadets. When she dropped out five days after being admitted, two other women took her place on the lawsuit against The Citadel.

The Citadel has received more than 350 inquiries from women who want to apply. And the Virginia Military Institute received 347 inquiries from women, which they ignored, in the two years before the federal government sued the Institute in 1990 to force them admit women.