298
Stevens, J., dissenting
Moreover, Cannon was itself a disparate-impact case. In that case, the plaintiff brought suit against two private universities challenging medical school admissions policies that set age limits for applicants. Plaintiff, a 39-year-old woman, alleged that these rules had the effect of discriminating against women because the incidence of interrupted higher education is higher among women than among men. In providing a shorthand description of her claim in the text of the opinion, we ambiguously stated that she had alleged that she was denied admission "because she is a woman," but we appended a lengthy footnote setting forth the details of her disparate-impact claim. Other than the shorthand description of her claim, there is not a word in the text of the opinion even suggesting that she had made the improbable allegation that the University of Chicago and Northwestern University had intentionally discriminated against women. In the context of the entire opinion (including both its analysis and its uncontested description of the facts of the case), that single ambiguous phrase provides no basis for limiting the case's holding to incidents of intentional discrimination. If anything, the fact that the phrase "because she is a woman" encompasses both intentional and disparate-impact claims should have made it clear that the reasoning in the opinion was equally applicable to both types of claims. In any event, the holding of the case certainly applied to the disparate-impact claim that was described in detail in footnote 1 of the opinion, id., at 680.
Our fractured decision in Guardians Assn. v. Civil Serv. Comm'n of New York City, 463 U. S. 582 (1983), reinforces the conclusion that this issue is effectively settled. While
contained in Title IX may be the subject of a private lawsuit. As the Court today concedes that Cannon's holding applies to Title VI claims as well as Title IX claims, ante, at 279-280, and assumes that the regulations promulgated pursuant to § 602 are validly promulgated antidiscrimination measures, ante, at 281-282, it is clear that today's opinion is in substantial tension with Cannon's reasoning and holding.
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