Nat'l Collegiate Athletic Ass'n v. Smith

• Decision Date: 23 February 1999
• Docket Number: 9884
• Citation: 142 L.Ed.2d 929,119 S.Ct. 924,525 U.S. 459
• Parties: 139 F.3d 180, vacated and remanded. SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES84 NATIONAL COLLEGIATE ATHLETIC ASSOCIATION, PETITIONER v. R. M. SMITH ON WRIT OF CERTIORARI TO THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE THIRD CIRCUIT [
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

525 U.S. 459

119 S.Ct. 924

142 L.Ed.2d 929

139 F.3d 180, vacated and remanded

SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES

No. 98 84

NATIONAL COLLEGIATE ATHLETIC ASSOCIATION, PETITIONER v R. M. SMITH

ON WRIT OF CERTIORARI TO THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE THIRD CIRCUIT

[February 23, 1999]

Justice Ginsburg delivered the opinion of the Court.

This case concerns the amenability of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA or Association) to a private action under Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972. The NCAA is an unincorporated association of approximately 1,200 members, including virtually all public and private universities and 4-year colleges conducting major athletic programs in the United States; the Association serves to maintain intercollegiate athletics as an integral part of its members' educational programs. Title IX proscribes sex discrimination in "any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance." 20 U.S.C. § 1681(a).

The complainant in this case, Renee M. Smith, sued the NCAA under Title IX alleging that the Association discriminated against her on the basis of her sex by denying her permission to play intercollegiate volleyball at federally assisted institutions. Reversing the District Court's refusal to allow Smith to amend her pro se complaint, the Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit held that the NCAA's receipt of dues from federally funded member institutions would suffice to bring the Association within the scope of Title IX. We reject that determination as inconsistent with the governing statute, regulation, and this Court's decisions. Dues payments from recipients of federal funds, we hold, do not suffice to render the dues recipient subject to Title IX. We do not address alternative grounds, urged by respondent and the United States as amicus curiae, in support of Title IX's application to the NCAA in this litigation, and leave resolution of those grounds to the courts below on remand.

I

Rules adopted by the NCAA govern the intercollegiate athletics programs of its member colleges and universities; "[b]y joining the NCAA, each member agrees to abide by and enforce [the Association's] rules." National Collegiate Athletic Assn. v. Tarkanian, 488 U.S. 179, 183 (1988); see 1993 94 NCAA Manual, NCAA Const., Arts. 1.2(h), 1.3.2, p. 1. Among these rules is the Postbaccalaureate Bylaw, which allows a postgraduate student-athlete to participate in intercollegiate athletics only at the institution that awarded her undergraduate degree. See 1993 94 NCAA Manual, Bylaw 14.1.8.2, at 123.1

Respondent Smith enrolled as an undergraduate at St. Bonaventure University, an NCAA member, in 1991. Smith joined the St. Bonaventure intercollegiate volleyball team in the fall of 1991 and remained on the team throughout the 1991 1992 and 1992 1993 athletic seasons. She elected not to play the following year.

Smith graduated from St. Bonaventure in 2 1/2 years. During the 1994 1995 athletic year, she was enrolled in a postgraduate program at Hofstra University; for the 1995 1996 athletic year, she enrolled in a different postgraduate program at the University of Pittsburgh. Smith sought to play intercollegiate volleyball during these athletic years, but the NCAA denied her eligibility on the basis of its postbaccalaureate restrictions. At Smith's request, Hofstra and the University of Pittsburgh petitioned the NCAA to waive the restrictions. Each time, the NCAA refused to grant a waiver.

In August 1996, Smith filed this lawsuit pro se, alleging, among other things, that the NCAA's refusal to waive the Postbaccalaureate Bylaw excluded her from participating in intercollegiate athletics at Hofstra and the University of Pittsburgh on the basis of her sex, in violation of Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, 86 Stat. 373, as amended, 20 U.S.C. § 1681 et seq.2 The complaint did not attack the Bylaw on its face, but instead alleged that the NCAA discriminates on the basis of sex by granting more

waivers from eligibility restrictions to male than female postgraduate student-athletes. Complaint ¶26, Joint App. in Nos. 97 3346 and 97 3347 (CA3), p. 4 (hereinafter Joint App.); Amended Complaint ¶64, Joint App. 98.

The NCAA moved to dismiss Smith's Title IX claim on the ground that the complaint failed to allege that the NCAA is a recipient of federal financial assistance. In opposition, Smith argued that the NCAA governs the federally funded intercollegiate athletics programs of its members, that these programs are educational, and that the NCAA benefited economically from its members' receipt of federal funds. See Joint App. 55 56.

Concluding that the alleged connections between the NCAA and federal financial assistance to member institutions were "too far attenuated" to sustain a Title IX claim, the District Court dismissed the suit. 978 F. Supp. 213, 219, 220 (WD Pa. 1997). Smith then moved the District Court for leave to amend her complaint to add Hofstra and the University of Pittsburgh as defendants, see Amended Complaint ¶63, Joint App. 97, and to allege that the NCAA "receives federal financial assistance through another recipient and operates an educational program or activity which receives or benefits from such assistance," Id., ¶65, Joint App. 98. The District Court denied the motion "as moot, the court having granted [the NCAA's] motion to dismiss." App. to Pet. for Cert. 36a.

The Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit reversed the District Court's refusal to grant leave to amend the complaint. 139 F.3d 180, 190 (1998). The Third Circuit agreed with the District Court that Smith's original complaint failed to state a Title IX claim. Id., at 189. But Smith's proposed amended complaint, the Court of Appeals said, "plainly alleges that the NCAA receives dues from member institutions, which receive federal funds." Id., at 190. That allegation, the Third Circuit held, "would be sufficient to bring the NCAA within the scope of Title IX as a recipient of federal funds and would survive a motion to dismiss." Ibid. Under the Third Circuit's ruling, all Smith would need to prove on remand to proceed is that the NCAA receives members' dues, a fact not in dispute.

The NCAA petitioned for this Court's review, alleging that the Court of Appeals' decision conflicted with Department of Transp. v. Paralyzed Veterans of America, 477 U.S. 597 (1986). Pet. for Cert. 7 15. We granted certiorari, 524 U.S. ___ (1998), to decide whether a private organization that does not receive federal financial assistance is subject to Title IX because it receives payments from entities that do.

II

Section 901(a) of Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, 20 U.S.C. § 1681(a), provides that "[n]o person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance."3 Under the Civil Rights Restoration Act of 1987 (CRRA), 102 Stat. 28, 20 U.S.C. § 1687 a "program or activity" includes "all of the operations of a college, university, or other postsecondary institution, or a public system of higher education any part of which is extended Federal financial assistance." §1687(2)(A). The CRRA also provides institution-wide coverage for entities "principally engaged in the business of providing education" services, §1687(3)(A)(ii), and for entities created by two or more covered entities, §1687(4).4 Thus, if any part of the NCAA received federal assistance, all NCAA operations would be subject to Title IX.

We have twice before considered when an entity qualifies as a recipient of federal financial assistance. In Grove City College v. Bell, 465 U.S. 555, 563 570 (1984), we held that a college receives federal financial assistance when it enrolls students who receive federal funds earmarked for educational expenses. Finding "no hint" that Title IX distinguishes "between direct institutional assistance and aid received by a school through its students," we concluded that Title IX "encompass[es] all forms of federal aid to education, direct or indirect." Id., at 564 (internal quotation marks omitted).

In Paralyzed Veterans, 477 U.S., at 603 612, we considered the scope of §504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, 29 U.S.C. § 794 which prohibits discrimination on the basis of disability in substantially the same terms that Title IX uses to prohibit sex discrimination. In that case, a group representing disabled veterans contended that the Department of Transportation had authority to enforce §504 against commercial air carriers by virtue of the Government's extensive program of financial assistance to airports. We held that airlines are not recipients of federal funds received by airport operators for airport construction projects, even when the funds are used for projects especially beneficial to the airlines. Application of §504 to all who benefited economically from federal assistance, we observed, would yield almost "limitless coverage." 477 U.S., at 608. We concluded that "[t]he statute covers those who receive the aid, but does not extend as far as those who benefit from it." Id., at 607.5

The Court of Appeals determined "not [to] apply the Paralyzed Veterans Court's definition of 'recipient' to Title IX," 139 F.3d, at 189, finding that definition inconsistent with 34 CFR § 106.2 (1997), a Title IX regulation issued by the Department of Education. The Third Circuit interpreted the Department's regulation to define a "recipient" as "an entity 'which operates an educational program or activity which receives or benefits' from federal funds." 139 F.3d, at 189 (quoting §106.2(h)). The court reasoned that §106.2(h) extends Title IX to beneficiaries of federal funding as well as recipients. Applying the more limited rule of Paralyzed Veterans, the appeals court concluded, would "render the regulatory definition...