Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, November 12, 1995 TAG: 9511130052
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: ALLISON BLAKE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Kim Primerano sat in the reassuringly dim lights of Washington and Lee University's Lee Chapel and heard something that made her fume.
"I don't like the idea we're out there playing golf and tennis," she said.
Her classmate chimed in.
"I don't personally care about upholding their tradition. I wanted to go to a woman's leadership college," Amy King said.
The two freshmen women, both students at the new Virginia Women's Institute for Leadership, may not have liked all of the legal arguments they heard last week during W&L Law School's moot court competition. But the point that VWIL is not military-style VMI is one the U.S. Justice Department has argued for months - and there's little reason to think the point won't be raised again when the case is argued before the Supreme Court on Jan. 17.
Both sides were explored during W&L's spirited moot court debate, in which questions revolved around the fictitious Davis Military Institute in the commonwealth of Davis. The moot court board, which manages the competition, decided last spring to use the high-profile case from the campus next door when staging its fictitious Supreme Court arguments.
VMI supporters - including a federal appeals court - say VWIL's leadership methods will produce the same results - citizen soldiers - as the "adversative," top-down discipline at VMI. And while golf and tennis are a piece of the VWIL curriculum, the students go through more physical education than that. They also went on a wilderness trip and must pass physical tests each year.
But one law student agrees, at least in part, with the Justice Department about VWIL.
"It's not tough enough," said Greer Saunders, who helped organize the competition, which is named for John W. Davis, a W&L alumnus and a fiery 19th-century orator who served as solicitor general.
But unlike the U.S. government, Saunders sees the value of separate men's and women's programs. As a Marine, she believes in the tough, top-down order imposed by the "adversative method" VMI uses, in which "rats," or freshmen, must eat and walk a certain way and even must drop to the ground and do push-ups if so ordered by an upperclassman.
One of the federal judges who evaluated the competition was M. Blaine Michael, appointed to the bench by President Clinton. He sits on the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond - the same one whose opinion of the VMI case is being appealed to the high court.
Although Michael is not a member of the three-judge panel that has heard the case, he was among the six who voted last winter in favor of having all judges in the circuit rehear the case, an unusual move. That effort was defeated after three of the circuit judges recused themselves. Under the court's rules, rehearing is granted only if a majority of the 13 judges vote in favor.
Four second-year students argued the case last week before Michael and two other judges: Clinton appointee Martha Craig Daughtrey of the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati, and Reagan appointee Kenneth F. Ripple of the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago.
The judges did not assess the outcome of the case itself, but the quality of the oration presented by the students, as well as their legal arguments. This was the third round in the competition - the finals.
Courtney Camp of Valdosta, Ga., who argued in favor of the U.S. government, won the competition; the runner-up was her opposition, Mary Eade of Bowling Green, Ky. Eade had argued in favor of diversity in single-sex education, the argument put forth by VMI and the state of Virginia with its two single-sex, leadership-style programs.
Seated near the contingent of VWIL students who attended, dressed in their forest-green-and-black uniforms, were some VMI cadets.
Because the moot court is an appeals court - in which the quality of the legal argument wins the day - and not a jury trial, Judge Daughtrey had some advice: Don't bring your clients to court.
What do the students think of the case?
"Obviously, we're going to have to do what the courts tell us to do," said cadet Aaron Sims of Birmingham, Ala. "Obviously, we don't feel it's in the best interest of the corps to change the system as it is."
Their fellow students down the street, the W&L students whose predecessors used to cross the campus to steal the VMI cannons, have mixed views on the case they've watched unfold for five years.
"The economic reality [is], it's real hard to get a job," said one law student, who didn't want to be named. "If you go to VMI, you will get a job - a decent job."
Why? Because of the school's tight alumni network. And that opportunity is "foreclosed to women."
VMI's alumni have pledged that they will help the VWIL students get jobs.
Others, like Saunders, support the separate programs.
Said cadet Matt Baldwin, "The way I see it, being away from women, as a 'rat,' you learn more respect."
by CNB