Reading Room Document

Appointment of Women to the Military Service Academies.

In this memo, the OLC opined that there was substantial doubt concerning the president’s statutory power to appoint women to the military service academies and that it would not violate constitutional guarantees to deny women appointments to those academies. The OLC reached this conclusion by relying on the text and purpose of various acts of congress and consistent administrative interpretation. The opinion states that this policy would not violate the constitution because a rational distinction existed between men and women’s performance in combat duty and training for service academy appointments. The OLC also noted relevant then-pending litigation and legislation on this question.

April 19, 1974