ABC LEAGUE v. MO. STATE HIGH SCH. ACTIVITIES ASS'N

• Decision Date: 25 January 1982
• Docket Number: No. 81-608C(1).,81-608C(1).
• Citation: 530 F. Supp. 1033
• Parties: The ABC LEAGUE, a voluntary unincorporated association, and Andrew T. Nelson, a minor by his next friend, his father, Richard T. Nelson, Plaintiffs, v. MISSOURI STATE HIGH SCHOOL ACTIVITIES ASSOCIATION, a voluntary unincorporated association, Defendant.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Eastern District of Missouri

530 F. Supp. 1033

The ABC LEAGUE, a voluntary unincorporated association, and Andrew T. Nelson, a minor by his next friend, his father, Richard T. Nelson, Plaintiffs, v. MISSOURI STATE HIGH SCHOOL ACTIVITIES ASSOCIATION, a voluntary unincorporated association, Defendant.

No. 81-608C(1).

United States District Court, E. D. Missouri, E. D.

December 23, 1981.

As Amended January 25, 1982.

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Stuart Symington, Jr., Lemoine Skinner, III, St. Louis, Mo., for plaintiffs.

J. Robert Tull, Columbia, Mo., Mark D. Sadow, St. Louis, Mo., for defendant.

MEMORANDUM

WANGELIN, Chief Judge.

On May 29, 1981, this action for a declaratory judgment pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2201 was instituted by The ABC League on behalf of the private and religious schools that are its members and by Richard T. Nelson, as next friend, father and guardian of Andrew T. Nelson. Plaintiffs asked the Court to determine whether defendant Missouri State High School Activities Association (hereinafter MSHSAA), may in accordance with the constitution prohibit Andrew T. Nelson from competing in intra-ABC League games that do not affect the opportunity of members of the League to participate in MSHSAA sponsored play-offs or tournaments by repealing Article VIII, Section 10 of the MSHSAA constitution (ABC League exemption). Plaintiff also questions whether Article VIII, Section 8 (transfer rule) of the MSHSAA constitution is constitutional even if conferences, e.g., The ABC League, are exempted from its scope in intra-conference play. Jurisdiction is predicated on 28 U.S.C. § 1331, 1343(3)(4). Since the impact of the MSHSAA regulation and of the injury complained of will be felt in St. Louis and St. Louis County, venue is proper in the Eastern District of Missouri. 28 U.S.C. § 1391(a).

Until May, 1981, The ABC League was exempt from the eligibility rules of the MSHSAA constitution in intra-league games that did not affect the opportunity of league members to partake in MSHSAA sponsored play-offs or tournaments. In effect, The ABC League exemption allowed The ABC League to play transfer students in interscholastic contests between ABC League schools only. ABC League transfer students were ineligible, under the transfer rule, to compete in contests between ABC League schools and other MSHSAA schools.¹ Shortly after the court decided in Barnhorst v. Missouri State High School Activities Association, No. 80-1036-CV-W-4-3 (April 8, 1981), to enjoin further application of The ABC League exemption (Article VIII, Section 10 of the MSHSAA constitution), the MSHSAA voted to eliminate this exemption. Defendant now seeks to apply to plaintiffs, in intra-ABC League games, Article VIII, Section 8 of the MSHSAA constitution (the transfer rule) which mandates that transfer students may not participate in interscholastic athletics during the first year after their transfer.

The Court concluded a bench trial which involved the taking of evidence over a period of three days in August, 1981. After consideration of the testimony adduced at trial, the exhibits introduced into evidence, the briefs of the parties, and the applicable law, the Court hereby makes the following findings of fact and conclusions of law. Any finding of fact equally applicable as a conclusion of law is hereby adopted as such and, conversely, any conclusion of law applicable as a finding of fact is adopted as such.

Findings of Fact

1. The plaintiff The ABC League is a voluntary unincorporated association formed in 1928 by a group of independent private schools in the St. Louis, Missouri metropolitan area to engage in and encourage athletic competition in team sports. The current membership of The ABC League consists of six (6) schools as follows: The St. Louis Country Day School and the John Burroughs School, which are private schools without religious affiliation, St. Louis Priory School, which is administered by the Benedictine Order of the Roman Catholic Church, the Principia, a school for the sons and daughters of Christian Scientists, Lutheran High School North and Lutheran High School South, which are owned and controlled by a not-for-profit Missouri corporation formed by seventy nine (79) Lutheran congregations for the purpose of offering religious and academic instruction. All of the schools are located in St. Louis County, Missouri. All schools belonging to The ABC League are members of the MSHSAA. Since its inception, two of the principal purposes of The ABC League have been to establish uniform eligibility rules and interscholastic athletic competition among its member schools, and to raise interscholastic athletics to the highest plane of personal development, good leadership and good sportsmanship.

2. Plaintiff, Andrew T. Nelson (Nelson) is a fifteen (15) year old student who completed the ninth grade at the St. Louis Country Day School in the spring of 1981 and has transferred into the tenth (10th) grade of John Burroughs School for the school year beginning in September, 1981. He brings this action through his next friend, Richard T. Nelson, his father and natural guardian. Nelson seeks to participate in ABC contests in football at the B level and wrestling and track at the A level at John Burroughs School.

3. Defendant MSHSAA is a voluntary unincorporated association of private and public junior and senior high schools formed in 1926 as an athletic association. Virtually all high schools in Missouri, including member schools of The ABC League, are members of the MSHSAA. Recently, MSHSAA has begun to set standards for speech, debate and music in junior and senior high schools. MSHSAA apparently seeks to permeate every area of junior high school and senior high school life in the State of Missouri. The principal purposes of the MSHSAA since its formation have been to establish uniform eligibility rules in interscholastic competition among its members, and to improve athletic relations by controlling any eligibility abuses that might occur in interscholastic sports.

4. MSHSAA has approximately five hundred and seventy five (575) senior high schools and two hundred (200) junior high schools in its membership. Of these schools, approximately ninety per cent (90%) are public, while the remainder are private or parochial. Programs administered by the Association affect some five hundred thousand (500,000) students in Missouri. Nearly all of the public senior high schools of Missouri are members of the Association, and approximately eighty per cent (80%) of the public junior high schools are also members. The governing structure of the Association is essentially democratic in nature; member schools collectively exercise legislative authority to adopt, amend or repeal constitutional provisions and by-laws; executive and administrative responsibilities concerning enforcement of MSHSAA policies and rules are entrusted to the Executive Secretary of the Association; and judicial authority is vested in an eight member Board of Control "to interpret the rules and provisions of the Constitution and By-Laws of the Association and ... be the final judge as to whether a violation has occurred." MSHSAA Constitution, Art. IV, Section 6(g). The eight individuals on the Board represent eight geographical districts within the State of Missouri and are selected by schools within each of the districts; each of the individuals is either a principal or a superintendent of a public school in his or her respective district. Local school boards have input into the formulation and enforcement of MSHSAA policies and rules through the district representatives.

5. MSHSAA also receives input from a liaison committee composed of representatives from the Missouri State Department of Education, the Missouri School Board Association and the Missouri Association of School Administrators. That committee periodically reviews MSHSAA policies and rules and makes recommendations for revisions. The Missouri State Department of Education has statutory authority to regulate interscholastic educational activities only during normal, six hour days; however, it has been the custom of the Department to advise MSHSAA through the liaison committee as to interscholastic activities conducted during periods outside the six hour day. Consequently, the Department and the State of Missouri have recognized MSHSAA as the official regulatory body in the area of interscholastic activities occurring outside the normal school day for at least the last fourteen years. Moreover, approximately seventy five per cent (75%) of all contests and competitive activities of member schools of MSHSAA occur on property owned by the State or municipalities.

6. MSHSAA was initially formed to establish uniform rules and standards for interconference play between Missouri schools. It was in these interconference games that disputes arose. Initially, MSHSAA permitted any conference to adopt its own eligibility and playing rules in sports.

7. The first constitution of MSHSAA, in 1926, contained a transfer and eligibility rule which is substantially the same as the eligibility rule found in today's MSHSAA's constitution in Article VIII, Section 8 (transfer rule). That Article provides that students who voluntarily transfer for reasons other than promotion from grade school to high school or from junior high school to senior high school are ineligible for three hundred and sixty five (365) days to represent their new school in interscholastic competition with other members of MSHSAA.

8. The original transfer rule (Article VIII, Section 8) was adopted to remedy conditions prevailing in the early days of Missouri High Schools. In those days, in which there were a large number of two and three year high schools, athletes would commonly move from one school to another to play sports. The overriding reason for the transfer rule was to stop "school-hopping" (transfers for primarily athletic reasons). The present...