ABSTRACT
Mississippi University for Women v. Hogan, 458 US 718, established a new judicial standard for assessing discrimination against women. The case raised issues of gender discrimination under the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the US Constitution and resulted in a special balancing test to be applied to cases involving classification by gender. Joe Hogan had never obtained a baccalaureate degree in nursing and wanted to work toward one at the state- supported Mississippi University for Women School of Nursing, which was the only nursing school in the area. He could not matriculate there, university officials told him, because only women were admitted, but he could audit courses. Hogan sued in federal court, charging that excluding him on the basis of his sex violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. The importance of the case, however, lay in the constitutional test articulated by Justice Sandra Day O'Connor.
