Law & Courts

High Court Rejects Case on Title IX

By Caroline Hendrie — June 14, 2005 2 min read
  • Save to favorites
  • Print

The U.S. Supreme Court last week let stand an appellate-court decision throwing out a lawsuit that blamed the Department of Education’s rules against sex discrimination for cuts to men’s college-sports teams that allegedly were unfair to male athletes.

A federal appeals court in Washington last year ruled against a coalition led by the National Wrestling Coaches Association that had challenged some of the Education Department’s rules for enforcing Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972.

In a 2-1 ruling in May 2004, a panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit held that the disputed rules were not directly to blame for cuts to men’s teams in various sports, chiefly wrestling, at colleges since the 1980s.

Instead, the coaches’ real beef should be with those institutions, which the appeals court said have flexibility in how to comply with the regulations. (“Wrestling Coaches Lose Appeal Over Ed. Dept.’s Title IX Rules,” May 26, 2004.)

On June 6, the Supreme Court declined without comment to take up the plaintiffs’ appeal in National Wrestling Coaches Association v. Department of Education (Case No. 04-922).

“They don’t reverse every case that’s decided in error,” said Lawrence J. Joseph, a Washington lawyer representing the plaintiffs.

But the National Women’s Law Center, which backed the federal government’s position, said it hoped the high court’s action meant that the “last word on this case has been spoken.”

“It’s high time the wrestlers stopped using this important law as a scapegoat for their own problems,” said Marcia D. Greenberger, the co-president of the Washington-based center.

Rematch Coming?

But Mr. Joseph said the plaintiffs were not giving up. He said they have another case pending against the Education Department over the agency’s rejection of a formal request to revise the Title IX rules.

In addition to the original coaches and alumni groups, that second case includes some new plaintiffs, including a high school wrestling club from Pennsylvania.

The association’s first suit challenged Education Department’s 1979 and 1996 guidance on Title IX, which prohibits sex discrimination in education programs receiving federal funds.

The rules allow colleges to prove compliance by providing athletic opportunities for men and women in numbers proportionate to their enrollments, among other steps. Institutions can eliminate teams or limit their rosters to achieve such balance under the rules.

Related Tags:

Events

Ed-Tech Policy Webinar Artificial Intelligence in Practice: Building a Roadmap for AI Use in Schools
AI in education: game-changer or classroom chaos? Join our webinar & learn how to navigate this evolving tech responsibly.
Education Webinar Developing and Executing Impactful Research Campaigns to Fuel Your Ed Marketing Strategy 
Develop impactful research campaigns to fuel your marketing. Join the EdWeek Research Center for a webinar with actionable take-aways for companies who sell to K-12 districts.
This content is provided by our sponsor. It is not written by and does not necessarily reflect the views of Education Week's editorial staff.
Sponsor
Privacy & Security Webinar
Navigating Cybersecurity: Securing District Documents and Data
Learn how K-12 districts are addressing the challenges of maintaining a secure tech environment, managing documents and data, automating critical processes, and doing it all with limited resources.
Content provided by Softdocs

EdWeek Top School Jobs

Teacher Jobs
Search over ten thousand teaching jobs nationwide — elementary, middle, high school and more.
View Jobs
Principal Jobs
Find hundreds of jobs for principals, assistant principals, and other school leadership roles.
View Jobs
Administrator Jobs
Over a thousand district-level jobs: superintendents, directors, more.
View Jobs
Support Staff Jobs
Search thousands of jobs, from paraprofessionals to counselors and more.
View Jobs

Read Next

Law & Courts Oklahoma Nonbinary Student's Death Shines a Light on Families' Legal Recourse for Bullying
Students facing bullying and harassment from their peers face legal roadblocks in suing districts, but settlements appear to be on the rise
11 min read
A photograph of Nex Benedict, a nonbinary teenager who died a day after a fight in a high school bathroom, is projected during a candlelight service at Point A Gallery, on Feb. 24, 2024, in Oklahoma City. Federal officials will investigate the Oklahoma school district where Benedict died, according to a letter sent by the U.S. Department of Education on March 1, 2024.
A photograph of Nex Benedict, a nonbinary teenager who died a day after a fight in a high school restroom, is projected during a candlelight service at Point A Gallery, on Feb. 24, 2024, in Oklahoma City. Federal officials will investigate the Oklahoma school district where Benedict died, according to a letter sent by the U.S. Department of Education on March 1, 2024.
Nate Billings/The Oklahoman via AP
Law & Courts Supreme Court Declines Case on Selective High School Aiming to Boost Racial Diversity
Some advocates saw the K-12 case as the logical next step after last year's decision against affirmative action in college admissions
7 min read
Rising seniors at the Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology gather on the campus in Alexandria, Va., Aug. 10, 2020. From left in front are, Dinan Elsyad, Sean Nguyen, and Tiffany Ji. From left at rear are Jordan Lee and Shibli Nomani. A federal appeals court’s ruling in May 2023 about the admissions policy at the elite public high school in Virginia may provide a vehicle for the U.S. Supreme Court to flesh out the intended scope of its ruling Thursday, June 29, 2023, banning affirmative action in college admissions.
A group of rising seniors at the Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology gather on the campus in Alexandria, Va., in August 2020. From left in front are, Dinan Elsyad, Sean Nguyen, and Tiffany Ji. From left at rear are Jordan Lee and Shibli Nomani. The U.S. Supreme Court on Feb. 20 declined to hear a challenge to an admissions plan for the selective high school that was facially race neutral but designed to boost the enrollment of Black and Hispanic students.
J. Scott Applewhite/AP
Law & Courts School District Lawsuits Against Social Media Companies Are Piling Up
More than 200 school districts are now suing the major social media companies over the youth mental health crisis.
7 min read
A close up of a statue of the blindfolded lady justice against a light blue background with a ghosted image of a hands holding a cellphone with Facebook "Like" and "Love" icons hovering above it.
iStock/Getty
Law & Courts In 1974, the Supreme Court Recognized English Learners' Rights. The Story Behind That Case
The Lau v. Nichols ruling said students have a right to a "meaningful opportunity" to participate in school, but its legacy is complex.
12 min read
Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court William O. Douglas is shown in an undated photo.
U.S. Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas, shown in an undated photo, wrote the opinion in <i>Lau</i> v. <i>Nichols</i>, the 1974 decision holding that the San Francisco school system had denied Chinese-speaking schoolchildren a meaningful opportunity to participate in their education.
AP