A legal victory for women in sports
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posted by Womenstake The official blog of the National Women's Law Center |
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by Dina Lassow, Senior Counsel,
National Women's Law Center
The Ninth Circuit recently issued a great opinion reversing a district court decision that would have greatly complicated Title IX athletics cases by imposing new requirements on athletes who file lawsuits challenging discrimination.
In the case, Mansourian v. UC Davis, the Court of Appeals reinstated the claims of women wrestlers who had sued the university for violations of Title IX, the federal law that bars sex discrimination in schools that receive federal funding, after they were barred from wrestling. The district court judge, who clearly did not understand the Title IX athletics policies, applied a burdensome standard from Title IX sexual harassment cases, and held that the women first had to provide appropriate university officials with notice of their discrimination and an opportunity to fix it. The district court then dismissed the case based on its finding that the women wrestlers had not met that standard.
The Ninth Circuit – relying on an amicus brief filed by the National Women’s Law Center - emphatically rejected the finding that the sexual harassment standard was applicable. In so doing, the Court recognized that decisions about participation opportunities and how to allocate resources between male and female teams are official policy decisions made by the institution, so that the school does not need to be informed about its decisions by the athletes. Thank goodness the court realized that women and girls do not need any more barriers to equity.
View Original Post at womenstake.org
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- Filed Under:
- Wrestling, Sports, SportsPLUS, College, Discrimination/Title IX, More, Student-Athlete, Sexism
- Tags:
- sports
- Title IX
- Athletics
- Dina Lassow
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