Law & Courts

Wrestling Coaches Lose Appeal Over Ed. Dept.’s Title IX Rules

By Michelle R. Davis — May 26, 2004 2 min read
  • Save to favorites
  • Print

A lawsuit by a college wrestling coaches’ group aimed at restoring athletic opportunities for male students has been pinned to the mat by a federal appeals court.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit on May 14 upheld an earlier dismissal of the suit claiming that the Department of Education’s regulations for enforcing Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 caused some colleges to scrap their wrestling teams.

The 2-1 ruling by a panel of the federal appeals court in Washington echoed a 2003 U.S. District Court decision that responsibility for the athletes’ grievances lay with the colleges, not the Education Department’s interpretations of Title IX. The law prohibits sex discrimination in educational programs that receive federal money.

The loss of athletic opportunities for men in these instances comes from “the independent decisions of federally funded educational institutions that choose to eliminate or reduce the size of men’s wrestling teams in order to comply with Title IX,” says the majority opinion by the appellate panel. The majority also said a change in government policies would not rectify the situation; only the schools could do that.

Mike Moyer, the executive director of the National Wrestling Coaches Association, the Manheim, Pa.-based group that filed the suit, along with several others, said his organization planned to ask the full appeals court to rehear the case and, if turned down, would appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.

“We have no intention of stopping,” he said last week.

The association’s lawsuit challenged Education Department guidance from 1979 and 1996 on complying with Title IX, including a rule that allows colleges to demonstrate their compliance in athletic programs by providing opportunities for men and women in numbers proportionate to their enrollments. Institutions can cap or eliminate teams to get their proportions right.

Last year, a commission appointed by the Bush administration held hearings as part of a review of Title IX issues and heard from hundreds of male wrestlers, swimmers, gymnasts, and other athletes who blamed the elimination of their sports on the so-called proportionality test. Following the hearings and a controversial report from the commission, the Department of Education ultimately made no changes to the law. (“After Long Title IX Review, Agency Makes No Changes,” Aug. 6, 2003.)

Minority View

In his dissent from the appellate ruling, U.S. Senior Circuit Judge Stephen F. Williams wrote that schools that eliminated men’s sports programs had done so as a direct result of the Education Department’s Title IX rules, so the plaintiffs had legal standing to sue the department and not just the colleges.

“The complaint clearly alleges that the department regulations and policies represented a substantial factor in educational institutions’ decisions on the number and composition of sports teams,” he wrote.

Neena Chaudhry, a senior counsel at the National Women’s Law Center, a Washington-based organization that advocates strong enforcement of Title IX, said she didn’t believe any appeal by the wrestling coaches’ association would be successful.

“The decision shows that Title IX is not to blame for the losses of some men’s teams,” she said. “The real task is to enforce the law because there’s still a lot of discrimination against women and girls.”

Related Tags:

A version of this article appeared in the May 26, 2004 edition of Education Week as Wrestling Coaches Lose Appeal Over Ed. Dept.’s Title IX Rules

Events

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
Assessment Webinar
Rethinking STEM Assessment: Strategies for Administrators
School and district leaders will explore strategies to enhance STEM assessment practices across their district, within schools and classrooms.
Content provided by Project Lead The Way
Federal Webinar Keeping Up with the Trump Administration's Latest K-12 Moves: Subscriber-Exclusive Quick Hit
EdWeek subscribers, join this 30-minute webinar to find out what the latest federal policy changes mean for K-12 education.
Artificial Intelligence Live Online Discussion A Seat at the Table: Math & Technology: Finding the Recipe for Student Success
How should we balance AI & math instruction? Join our discussion on preparing future-ready students.

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 Trump Administration Asks Supreme Court to Reinstate Ed. Dept. Layoffs
The administration asks the U.S. Supreme Court to remove an injunction blocking the layoffs of nearly 1,400 department employees
4 min read
Attorneys from the Education Department's General Counsel Office Emily Merolli, second left, and Shaw Vanze in the back, second right, are greeted by supporters after retrieving their personal belongings from the Education Department building in Washington on March 24, 2025.
Attorneys from the U.S. Education Department's General Counsel Office Emily Merolli, second left, and Shaw Vanze in the back, second right, are greeted by supporters after retrieving their personal belongings from the department's headquarters in Washington on March 24, 2025. The Trump administration has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to undo a federal district court injunction that would reinstate some 1,400 employees laid off from the department.
Jose Luis Magana/AP
Law & Courts A Court Told Trump to Reverse Ed. Dept. Layoffs. Will It Happen?
A judge ruled May 22 that the Trump administration had to reinstate laid-off Ed. Dept. staffers. They're still not back on the job.
6 min read
Supporters hold signs and cheer Education Department employees as they leave after retrieving their personal belongings from the Education Department building in Washington, Monday, March 24, 2025.
Supporters hold signs and cheer Education Department employees as they leave after retrieving their personal belongings from the Education Department building in Washington, Monday, March 24, 2025. A judge has ordered the reinstatement of terminated department employees, but they have yet to return to work.
Jose Luis Magana/AP
Law & Courts Appeals Court Ruling Raises Bar for Challenging School Book Bans
A federal appeals court rejected a challenge to book removals in a Texas public library and overruled a precedent on school library cases.
6 min read
Books sit on shelves in an elementary school library in suburban Atlanta on Aug. 18, 2023.
Books sit on shelves in an elementary school library in suburban Atlanta on Aug. 18, 2023. A federal appeals court covering Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas has made it more difficult for public and school library patrons to challenge book removal decisions.
Hakim Wright Sr./AP
Law & Courts Supreme Court Won’t Hear ‘Two Genders’ Student T-Shirt Case
Over two justices' dissent, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear the case of a student barred from wearing an anti-transgender T-shirt.
6 min read
Liam Morrison, pictured in the "There Are Only Two Genders" shirt at the heart of his Supreme Court case, L.M. v. Town of Middleborough.
Liam Morrison, pictured in the "There Are Only Two Genders" shirt at the heart of his Supreme Court case, <i>L.M.</i>&nbsp;v.&nbsp;<i>Town of Middleborough</i>.
Courtesy of Alliance Defending Freedom