A hypothetical situation occurred to me & my friends while discussing the recent Supreme Court decision on affirmative action: Suppose (for whatever reason) a male high-school student applied to a women’s college (i.e. Bryn Mawr, Mt. Holyoke, Smith, Wellesley), and was rejected on the basis of his gender. Would he have a basis to sue the college for discrimination? It seems more than likely to me that the suit would be dismissed, but what would be the legal basis for doing so? It’s true that all three of the institutions I’ve mentioned are private colleges, but don’t they have to abide by Title IX if they receive any federal funding?
U of Michigan is a public school.
In their employment decisions, the colleges are bound by discrimination laws which relate employers. With respect to admission decisions and Title IX, however, schools that are “public” (i.e. government owned and operated) must comply with Title IX, while schools that are “private” (privately owned and operated) need not comply with Title IX even if they get some federal funds for research and the like–Title IX/admission compliance is not a prerequisite to federal funds).
This private/public situation was the issue with VMI and other state-run military academies. They now accept women because they are publicly owned. The schools you mentioned, if they were public, would have necessarily become integrated after the Supreme Court’s VMI decision. The decision last week would have no effect on a private school’s acceptance formulae.
Therefore, if a male student applied to Wellesley, he would likely get rejected–even if he had a 1600 SAT and a 4.0 GPA. The basis would be gender and, as the law currently stands, he would have no recourse.