VMI

[Douglas Laycock]

        Our moderator may cut this off at any time, but until he does:

        I'm not sure Stephen Gilles and I disagree.  My impression, based on
scanty reports in the national press, was that during the brief pursuit of
the privatizing option, there was a concerted effort by the VMI
administration and its alumni to see if a sale were possible.  I assumed, I
think accurately, that there was no imaginable reason for such a sale except
to avoid the decree that precipitated investigation of the possibility.  I
assumed the General Assembly would have to approve.  On those facts, I am
comfortable imputing purpose to the state.

        Certainly I can imagine a state deciding to sell or even give away
an operation that it felt no longer served a public purpose, and being
indifferent as to who bought it.  The feds have a surplus property
disposition agency whose missino is to sell or give away unneeded federal
facilities; that's how we got the Valley Forge litigation.  On those facts,
it is much less plausible to impute the private buyer's purpose to the
government.
Douglas Laycock
University of Texas Law School
727 E. Dean Page Keeton St.
Austin, TX  78705
        512-471-3275 (voice)
        512-471-6988 (fax)
        dlaycock at mail.law.utexas.edu