1. Mississippi Univ. for Women v. Hogan, (1982)
2. Facts: A state-sponsored Mississippi college was all female, and had an all female nursing school. Hogan was a man who lived in the college community, was a registered nurse, and desired to attend the school to pursue a degree. The school denied his request, and permitted him only to attend the classes on an audit basis. The state’s justification was that the school compensated for discrimination against women, and was “educational affirmative action.”
3. Procedural Posture: Unknown.
4. Issue: Whether the college’s policy of excluding males is a violation of equal protection.
5. Holding: Yes.
6. Majority Reasoning: [O’Connor] stated that the heightened level of scrutiny applied in Craig was applicable here. The fact that it discriminated against males and not females did not matter. The standard was that “important governmental objectives” must be legitimate, and the classification must be “substantially related to the acheivement of those objectives.” If the state objectives are based on sexual stereotypes, they are illegitimate. Here, there was no sexual discrimination to protect against, because the nursing profession was 90%+ women. Also, the classification was not substantially related to the purpose, because the presence of male students on an auditing basis, whether they got credit or not, changed the “environment” of the school, so it was not necessary to withhold credit for males in order to accomplish the school’s educational goals.
7. Dissent Reasoning: [Powell] The rational basis test should have been applied here because there was no sex discrimination. It is only an additional choice for women, not a denial of choice for men. There are distinct advantages to segregation of sexes in higher education, and this simply represents the consensual choice of the participants.
