Walsh v. Louisiana High School Athletic Ass'n

• Decision Date: 17 March 1977
• Docket Number: Civ. A. No. 75-2458.
• Citation: 428 F. Supp. 1261
• Parties: Catherine WALSH et al., Plaintiffs, v. LOUISIANA HIGH SCHOOL ATHLETIC ASSOCIATION et al., Defendants.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Eastern District of Louisiana

428 F. Supp. 1261

Catherine WALSH et al., Plaintiffs, v. LOUISIANA HIGH SCHOOL ATHLETIC ASSOCIATION et al., Defendants.

Civ. A. No. 75-2458.

United States District Court, E. D. Louisiana.

March 17, 1977.

Talley, Anthony, Hughes & Knight, Charles M. Hughes, Bogalusa, La., for Louisiana High School and Lutheran High School.

Thomas L. Giraud, New Orleans, La., for Lutheran High School Assoc.

Gauche, Wegener & Oster, Robert J. Oster, Edmund T. Wegener, Jr., New Orleans, La., for Intervenor Etienne D'Arensbourg.

ALVIN B. RUBIN, District Judge:

This suit challenges the constitutionality of the "transfer rule", adopted by the Louisiana High School Athletic Association. That rule restricts the eligibility of a child to compete in inter-scholastic high school athletic contests if the child, upon completion of the seventh or eighth grade, enrolls in any high school other than the one in the child's home district. The constitutional challenge is to the rule as applied to children who have attended Lutheran parochial elementary schools and wish to attend the only Lutheran High School available to them, a school not in their home district. For the reasons set forth below, while the regulation withstands the constitutional attacks made on the basis that it encroaches on religious freedom and denies due process, it is unconstitutional because it denies the plaintiffs equal protection of the law; therefore it is hereby declared unenforceable.

The plaintiffs are the parents of children who are attending Lutheran High School. The defendants are both the Louisiana High School Athletic Association (LHSAA)¹ and the Lutheran High School Association of Greater New Orleans, which operates the Lutheran High School and is therefore sympathetically allied with the plaintiffs. Plaintiffs' children attended private elementary schools in New Orleans sponsored by Lutheran religious groups. In 1975 these children matriculated in Lutheran High School.

LHSAA, through the Lutheran High School Association of Greater New Orleans, ruled each of the plaintiffs' children ineligible to compete in inter-scholastic athletic competition for the school term 1975-76 because of provisions in the by-laws of the LHSAA (the "transfer rule").² The claims with respect to these particular children became moot when that school year ended, but at least one subsequently added plaintiff has a child affected by the rule and some of the parents have other children who will likely be affected by it soon. Therefore, in a separate opinion dated September 20, 1976, the Court decided that the suit is not moot.

The "transfer rule", set forth in full in the footnotes,³ designates an attendance zone for each public high school in the state. No separate attendance zones are set for private or parochial high schools; each is considered to have the same attendance zone as the public high school that is located in the zone where its building is situated. To be eligible for inter-scholastic athletic competition, students who complete elementary school or junior high school must attend the high school located in the same attendance zone as their elementary school (or the high school in the zone where they reside), with certain exceptions created by the LHSAA or the parish school boards for special high schools.

The geographical attendance zone imposed on Lutheran High by LHSAA does not include any of the Lutheran elementary schools. Therefore, when a child completes any of the seven Lutheran elementary schools in the parish and, in order to continue his parochial education, matriculates in the Lutheran High School, he automatically loses one year of eligibility to compete in inter-scholastic athletics. All students in the 9th grade at Lutheran High School since its opening have therefore been ineligible to compete in inter-scholastic athletics for one year.

The transfer rule was adopted to prevent recruiting of school children by overzealous athletic coaches, fans, and school faculty. High schools, public and private, eager to enlist promising athletes, were urging students who would otherwise attend another school to change the school they would attend in order to enhance the quality of the teams at the recruiting school. Some alumni associations, athletic clubs, and even principals and coaches resorted to various expedients unrelated to educational goals to recruit promising student athletes. Therefore promising young athletes were being subjected to inducements to go to one school or another purely to enable the school to field a better team. This unwholesome situation was one of the main reasons that brought about the formation of LHSAA. All parties to this suit agree that this sort of recruiting of school children to engage in athletic competition may be considered harmful by the state, and that it may take steps to prevent this harm.

The LHSAA is a voluntary association of some 447 high schools in Louisiana, which regulates inter-scholastic athletic competition among the schools. Although membership in it is voluntary, a school must belong in order to compete with other schools; its activities, sanctioned by the state, constitute state action in the constitutional sense. Louisiana High School Athletic Association v. St. Augustine High School, 5 Cir. 1968, 396 F.2d 224.

Four New Orleans public schools are exempt, at least to some degree, from the transfer rule in Orleans Parish. Students from the entire parish are permitted to attend Ben Franklin High School, which limits enrollment to students who have demonstrated high achievement on entrance tests and above average grades in elementary school; parish-wide enrollment is also permitted in Booker T. Washington School, which has a vocational education curriculum; in McMain Magnet Senior High (except for a small area within the Fortier High School attendance district); and in McDonogh 35 School.⁴ Because the school board permits students from other attendance zones to matriculate at these schools, the LHSAA has modified its rules to exempt them from the transfer rule.

There are some who dispute the desirability of competitive inter-scholastic athletics in high schools. The parties to this suit all consider such competition not only appropriate but desirable. Many students who value inter-scholastic athletics have either no interest in participation or lack the athletic ability to do so. Losing a year of varsity eligibility is meaningless to the young person who has no interest in intermural sports. But it may be significant to the youngster who desires to participate in high school athletics. The testimony in this case has established that athletic competition is important to some of the children of the plaintiffs. In addition, testimony was offered to show that students who achieve membership on school athletic teams enjoy higher peer group esteem, may achieve better grades, and tend to be more self-reliant than other classmates. At the same time it must be recognized that these youngsters are usually 14 or 15 years old. They would be competing for places with older students, who are probably more developed. They may engage in intra-scholastic athletic activities and team training, but they are barred from inter-scholastic contests. They are thus deprived of a chance to develop their skills in a competitive context, of motivation to practice, and of the prestige of being a team member.

The state's interest must be weighed in the opposite side of the balance. The state has an interest in regulating inter-mural competition. The testimony offered by the LHSAA is persuasive that no plan of regulating recruiting is effective other than that of limiting the alternatives available to students. It is doubtful that case by case adjudication could effectively regulate the traffic in athletes. Individual inquiry on a case by case basis would involve a panoply of inquiry, hearing, and decision-making. If recruiting occurred, neither of the parties to the successful evasion of the regulations would complain, nor would either be likely willingly to furnish evidence. The likely complainants would be opposing schools, which would have as little chance to prove their case as other prosecutors of consensual crimes. They would have no staff of investigators and no way to develop facts. Nor is any such staff available from any other source to investigate complaints. In addition, both the experience of the Association before the rule was adopted and the recurrent problems of collegiate regulation make it doubtful that the punishment of recruitment once it has occurred, even if later detected and proved, is sufficient to prevent recruitment. The time interval between enrollment of the 9th grade student in high school and his participation in an athletic event make it almost inevitable that the hearings to investigate whether or not illicit recruiting had taken place would occur after athletic events had taken place. Prophylaxis is not only more feasible than punishment; it may be the only effective way to deal with the problem. Hence as a pragmatic matter, the only feasible method is to adopt a clear, readily understandable and easily enforceable rule.

Plaintiffs claim the application of the "transfer rule" to them and their children violates their right to free exercise of religion guaranteed by the 1st and 14th Amendments to the Constitution of the United States because it discourages athletically talented and interested children from attending religious schools; they also contend that they are denied due process and equal protection on grounds more fully set forth below.

I. JURISDICTION

Section 1343 of the Judicial Code, 28 U.S.C. § 1343 provides:

The district courts shall have original jurisdiction of any civil action authorized by law to be commenced by any person:

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(3) To redress the deprivation, under color of any State law, statute, ordinance, regulation, custom or usage, of any right, privilege or

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