The Houk Law Firm Mourns the Passing of Pioneer and Legal Giant Justice Ginsburg

US Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the first Jewish woman to serve on the Court, was laid to rest on September 29, 2020, at 87 years old. 

One of Justice Ginsburg's opinions during her 27 years on the Supreme Court was the 1996 Virginia Military Institute (VMI) case. The VMI, founded in 1839, and the oldest state-supported military college in the United States, was the only public university in Virginia that did not allow women to enroll. In a 7-1 decision, Justice Ginsburg wrote that the male-only admissions policy violated the US Constitution.

Despite arguments at the time by VMI, Virginia, and Justice Scalia (the sole dissenter in the case), that integration would "destroy" VMI, her decision was later hailed as transformative by those directly affected: