Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 prohibits educational programs in the United States that receive federal funds from discriminating against or excluding individuals on the basis of sex. Its purpose was to ensure equal opportunity, and it was passed after Congress considered evidence of women’s historic exclusion from education. Despite that history of limited opportunity, with women comprising only 43% of college enrollees in the early 1970s, women are now the majority, comprising 58% of the Class of 2010. Some universities might therefore desire to equalize their gender ratios by implementing affirmation action plans that give preference to male applicants. However, based on Title IX’s purpose of equal opportunity, the constitutional
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Virginia, a female high school student challenged the Virginia Military Institute’s (VMI) policy of admitting only males because there was no opportunity for women to get the unique type of education that VMI offered. Because Title IX contains an exemption for public schools that have continually admitted only one sex, like VMI, its protections did not apply. Rather, the case was brought under the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, which prohibits the state, and therefore public institutions, from discriminating based on sex. The Court evaluated the claim using the intermediate scrutiny standard established for sex-based classifications. This test grants less deference to the state than a rational basis review, but it is less exacting than strict scrutiny. Justice Ginsberg, writing for the majority, made it clear that VMI’s all-male admissions policy and its subsequent attempt to create a parallel institution for women violated the Constitution under this …show more content…
An admissions policy at a co-educational public institution that discriminates against females in favor of males could therefore be vulnerable to a challenge under Title IX statutory claim in addition to the constitutional challenge. The First Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in Cohen v. Brown University that the school was discriminating against women under Title IX in its budget cuts to athletic programs. Like in the VMI case, past discrimination of women was central in the decision, and this court also suggested that polices that benefit women to address historic harms could be
Virginia, a female high school student challenged the Virginia Military Institute’s (VMI) policy of admitting only males because there was no opportunity for women to get the unique type of education that VMI offered. Because Title IX contains an exemption for public schools that have continually admitted only one sex, like VMI, its protections did not apply. Rather, the case was brought under the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, which prohibits the state, and therefore public institutions, from discriminating based on sex. The Court evaluated the claim using the intermediate scrutiny standard established for sex-based classifications. This test grants less deference to the state than a rational basis review, but it is less exacting than strict scrutiny. Justice Ginsberg, writing for the majority, made it clear that VMI’s all-male admissions policy and its subsequent attempt to create a parallel institution for women violated the Constitution under this …show more content…
An admissions policy at a co-educational public institution that discriminates against females in favor of males could therefore be vulnerable to a challenge under Title IX statutory claim in addition to the constitutional challenge. The First Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in Cohen v. Brown University that the school was discriminating against women under Title IX in its budget cuts to athletic programs. Like in the VMI case, past discrimination of women was central in the decision, and this court also suggested that polices that benefit women to address historic harms could be