|
Lawsuit
Against Title IX Dismissed By Allan Lengel and Michael A. Fletcher A federal
judge in Washington yesterday dismissed a lawsuit challenging the enforcement of
Title IX, rejecting a claim that the law promoted women's collegiate sports
programs at the expense of male athletic teams. In a
119-page ruling, U.S. District Judge Emmet G. Sullivan said the lawsuit filed by
the National Wrestling Association and four other athletic groups failed to show
the harmful effects of the 31-year-old law that prohibits sex discrimination in
education programs, including athletics. Marcia D.
Greenberger, co-president of the National Women's Law Center, which filed a
friend of the court brief in the lawsuit against the U.S. Department of
Education, hailed the ruling as a very important victory. "It
totally puts to rest the argument that men's teams are being hurt by Title
IX," she said. "The court firmly concluded that the wrestling teams
surely could not show any real connection between the dropping of teams by some
schools and the Title IX policies." Lawrence
Joseph, an attorney representing the male sports groups, vowed that the fight
"was far from over." "The
plaintiffs will either appeal to the court of appeals or seek the district
court's reconsideration," he said. The lawsuit
challenged the enforcement of Title IX by the Education Department. The
wrestling association said that the lawsuit's aim was not to undermine the
landmark law but to require the federal government to enforce it in a way that
protects women's athletics without hurting men. In issuing
the ruling, however, Sullivan concluded that the male athletic groups could not
show that creation of women's sports programs resulted in men's teams being
eliminated. Therefore, he said, the plaintiffs in the case had "failed to
meet their burden of persuasion on the question of whether they are the proper
parties to be asserting the claims they raise." Previous
lawsuits claiming the law discriminated against men have also been unsuccessful.
Schools
comply with the law by ensuring that the percentage of male and female athletes
is about equal to the ratio of men and women enrolled. They also can comply by
demonstrating a history of expanding sports opportunities for women or by
showing that their offerings meet the interests of the student body. Since its
enactment, the law has led to exponential growth in women's athletics programs.
In 1972, according to the National Women's Law Center, there were 31,852 female
college athletes. By 2001, their ranks had grown to 150,916. At the high school
level, the number of female athletes increased from 294,000 to nearly 2.8
million during the same time period. The
wrestling association and others contend that the growth in women's sports has
come at the expense of small-revenue men's sports, such as swimming, wrestling
and gymnastics. In their lawsuit, the wrestling coaches said that 355 men's
college athletic teams, and 22,000 spots on those teams, have been eliminated
over the past decade as a result of the law. While the
Bush administration battled the lawsuit, it is clear that the action also caught
its attention. Last year, Education Secretary Roderick R. Paige appointed a
blue-ribbon panel to reevaluate Title IX, prompting many of the law's supporters
to worry that the administration wanted to weaken it. In January,
the federal commission endorsed a package of recommendations that would offer
schools new latitude in apportioning athletic opportunities and scholarships
between men and women. Paige is now considering them and is expected to issue
his suggestions for changing Title IX in the coming months. Greenberger
said she hopes the decision sends a message to the Bush administration. "This
decision confirms that rather than attempting to undermine Title IX athletic
policies, the Bush administration should maintain and more strongly enforce the
law," she said. |