SmartBrief
0
Confirm favorite deletion?
Constitutional Law Keyed to Barnett
United States v. Virginia
Citation:
518 US 515 (1996)
InstructorMatthew Steinberg
CaseCast™ – "What you need to know"
Facts
The Virginia Military Institute (VMI) was a military school that limited admission to men only. The school used a highly rigorous “adversative method” which included “physical rigor, mental stress,” absence of privacy and regulation of behavior to achieve its goal of producing “citizen-soldiers.” In response to the Court of Appeals decision that VMI’s single sex admissions policy violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment (and order to develop a plan to remedy the violation), VMI established a parallel program to VMI for women. The state returned to the District Court to seek its approval of the remedial plan, and the District Court and Court of Appeals accepted it.
Only StudyBuddy Pro offers the complete Case Brief Anatomy*
Access the most important case brief elements for optimal case understanding.
*Case Brief Anatomy includes: Brief Prologue, Complete Case Brief, Brief Epilogue
- The Brief Prologue provides necessary case brief introductory information and includes:
Topic:
Identifies the topic of law and where this case fits within your course outline.Parties:
Identifies the cast of characters involved in the case.Procedural Posture & History:
Shares the case history with how lower courts have ruled on the matter.Case Key Terms, Acts, Doctrines, etc.:
A case specific Legal Term Dictionary.Case Doctrines, Acts, Statutes, Amendments and Treatises:
Identifies and Defines Legal Authority used in this case.
- The Case Brief is the complete case summarized and authored in the traditional Law School I.R.A.C. format. The Pro case brief includes:
Brief Facts:
A Synopsis of the Facts of the case.Rule of Law:
Identifies the Legal Principle the Court used in deciding the case.Facts:
What are the factual circumstances that gave rise to the civil or criminal case? What is the relationship of the Parties that are involved in the case.Issue(s):
Lists the Questions of Law that are raised by the Facts of the case.Holding:
Shares the Court's answer to the legal questions raised in the issue.Concurring / Dissenting Opinions:
Includes valuable concurring or dissenting opinions and their key points.Reasoning and Analysis:
Identifies the chain of argument(s) which led the judges to rule as they did.
- The Brief Prologue closes the case brief with important forward-looking discussion and includes:
Policy:
Identifies the Policy if any that has been established by the case.Court Direction:
Shares where the Court went from here for this case.
Topic Resources
Topic Videos 
5m 39s
15m 12sTopic Outline 
Topic Refresher Course 
Topic Charts & Notes 