Can lawyers sue the federal government for sexual discrimination against men? Since the answer is yes, why are there so few lawsuits?

Since the government files as "intervenor" in private lawsuits when federal issues are at stake, sometimes the result is that an Act of Congress is ruled unconstitutional.

Recently the civil action part of Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) was ruled unconstitutional in U.S. v. Morrison, a case which began as a joint Title IX and VAWA lawsuit called Brzonkala v. Virginia and the State University Virginia Tech.

All-male military draft registration was challenged and a federal trial court ruled it unconstitutional. But the Supreme Court reversed the case in 1981, ruling in Rostker v. Goldberg that since Congress had a constitutional power to raise armies and, because women were exempt from combat, all-male draft passed constitutional muster.

Interestingly women's rights activists argued in other instances that exclusion of women from combat was an "armour-plated ceiling" which prevented women from attaining higher ranks.

A female appellate judge also used "armour-plated ceiling" argument in favor of forcing then-all male Virginia Military Institute (VMI) to admit women.

Why are all-women colleges then exempt from Title IX, the federal law which prohibits sexual discrimination in educational programs that receive federal funds?

A state Court of Appeals had ruled a law unconstitutional for similarly exempting existing discriminatory practices in the lawsuit against Burning Tree Club in Maryland. The state's highest court held that it was an "intrinsic contradiction" and violated Maryland's Equal Rights Amendment. However, the Title IX portion was settled in the Brzonkala lawsuit before it reached the Supreme Court.

Very serious legal consequences can result if men fail to register for all-male draft. Some of them are the loss of eligibility for federal student loans and government jobs.

Similarly, former all-male colleges can lose all federal funds if guilty of violating Title IX. Worse, a federal appeals court in Boston held that violation of the "proportionality" prong of Title IX could cost Brown University up to one million dollars in legal fees. But very few have raised the issue that during the Vietnam War, under the all-male draft, the "proportionality" of the casualty count was over 58,000 men and 8 women dead.

Even now male soldiers can not use their G.I. Bill for education in some Women's College Coalition schools. So is some male activist lawyer going to sue the federal government for sex discrimination against men? Don't hold your breath.

The ultimate insult is that the Department of Justice has gender-based Violence Against Women Office with a multi-year budget of about $6 billion.


Kauko Kokkonen