Brent Finnegan -- March 22nd, 2007
You may recall there was a fair amount of criticism, both local and national, when JMU’s BoV decided the Title IX sports program cuts were final. As reported in USA Today yesterday, and the DNR today, Equity in Athletics is suing JMU the DoE in US district court over the matter. They want the 3-part DoE test dropped as a standard for Title IX compliance.
Will JMU’s BoV be in any trouble over this?
-finnegan
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Umm, I’m pretty sure the Department of Education is being sued… not JMU. Even the DNR got this one right.
Fixed. Thanks.
The press release does say that JMU should withhold its planned cuts, pending the final resolution of this litigation. If not, EIA will add JMU to the lawsuit as a defendant and seek an immediate order from the Court to halt the cuts while this case proceeds.
Hm, it’ll be interesting to see what the courts say. A couple of years ago the National Wrestling Coaches Ass’n sued the DoE in a very similar case, and the suit was rejected by the district court with the argument that even if the DoE changed its policy, universities could still cut men’s sports. This meant that even if the plaintiffs won against the DoE, they would not necessarily get relief. Look here: http://writ.lp.findlaw.com/grossman/20030715.html . The federal appeals court affirmed this ruling. But this was the DC circuit. The new suit has been brought in VA, and the appeals court for the fourth circuit would be in charge – and it’s usually considered to be conservative.
The second response (finnegan) answers the issue raised in the article by the third response (Andreas). The DC Circuit did not hold that the NWCA plaintiffs were wrong; it merely held that the NWCA plaintiffs did not prove that winning against the DOE would necessarily stop schools from cutting or capping teams for reasons other than Title IX. That issue arises under the legal doctrine of “standing” and particularly under standing’s “redressability” component. When suing a government agency for actions taken by third parties (here, schools), the question goes “how can the court know what independent parties not before the court will do if the plaintiffs prevail here?” In the JMU case, either JMU’s Board of Visitors will postpone the cuts or JMU will not be an “independent party not before the court.”