Brentwood Academy v. Tennessee Secondary
| Decision Date | 17 March 2006 |
| Docket Number | No. 03-5245.,No. 03-5278.,03-5245.,03-5278. |
| Citation | 442 F.3d 410 |
| Parties | BRENTWOOD ACADEMY, Plaintiff-Appellee/Cross-Appellant, v. TENNESSEE SECONDARY SCHOOL ATHLETIC ASSOCIATION; Ronnie Carter, Executive Director and in his individual capacity, Defendants-Appellants/Cross-Appellees. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Sixth Circuit |
ARGUED: Richard L. Colbert, Colbert & Winstead, Nashville, Tennessee, for Appellants. James F. Blumstein, Vanderbilt Law School, Nashville, Tennessee, for Appellee. ON BRIEF: Richard L. Colbert, W. Gregory Miller, J. Christopher Anderson, Colbert & Winstead, Nashville, Tennessee, for Appellants. James F. Blumstein, Vanderbilt Law School, Nashville, Tennessee, H. Lee Barfield II, W. Brantley Phillips, Jr., Bass, Barry & Sims, Nashville, Tennessee, for Appellee. Daniel Casse, White House Writers Group, Washington, D.C., Chester E. Finn, Jr., Thomas B. Fordham Foundation, Washington, D.C., John F. Daly, Federal Trade Commission, Washington, D.C., William E. Quirk, James M. Humphrey, Shughart, Thomson & Kilroy, Kansas City, Missouri, for Amici Curiae.
Before: GIBBONS and ROGERS, Circuit Judges; BELL, Chief District Judge.*
ROGERS, J. (pp. 444 - 456), delivered a separate dissenting opinion.
This appeal represents the third trip to this court for the parties to this litigation. The case has also been before the United States Supreme Court, which made a notable ruling that defendant-appellant Tennessee Secondary School Athletic Association ("TSSAA") was a state actor.
The parties' dispute began when the TSSAA imposed a number of penalties on plaintiff-appellee Brentwood Academy ("Brentwood") as a result of asserted violations by Brentwood of the TSSAA's rule governing recruiting of student athletes. Brentwood sued the TSSAA and its executive director, defendant-appellant Ronnie Carter, alleging violations of the First and Fourteenth Amendments, federal antitrust laws, and Tennessee law. After the United States Supreme Court determined that the TSSAA is a state actor, this court on remand held that the recruiting rule was content-neutral and subject to intermediate scrutiny. We remanded to the district court with instructions about the proper analysis in the case on the First Amendment issue. The district court conducted a ten-day nonjury trial. The district court found for Brentwood on the First Amendment issue, holding that the application of the rule to Brentwood was not narrowly tailored to further the TSSAA's legitimate, substantial interests. The district court also found for Brentwood on its substantive and procedural due process claims against the TSSAA, as well as on its procedural due process claim against Carter in his individual capacity. The district court enjoined the TSSAA's penalties against Brentwood. The district court also held that the TSSAA was entitled to immunity from Brentwood's antitrust claims. The parties cross-appealed to this court on these issues.
For the reasons set forth below, we affirm in part, reverse in part, and remand for further proceedings.
A. Factual Overview
We begin with a description of the most pertinent facts and supply additional facts as necessary in our discussion of the various issues.
The TSSAA is a voluntary association of 290 public schools and 55 independent and parochial schools from across the state of Tennessee. The TSSAA is organized as a non-profit corporation under Tennessee law, with the purpose of stimulating and regulating interscholastic athletic competition among its member schools. Its governing entity is the Board of Control. As noted in the Supreme Court's decision in this case, the Tennessee State Board of Education, beginning in 1925, explicitly acknowledged the TSSAA's functions "in providing standards, rules and regulations for interscholastic competition in the public schools of Tennessee." Brentwood Acad. v. Tenn. Secondary Sch. Athletic Ass'n, 531 U.S. 288, 292, 121 S.Ct. 924, 148 L.Ed.2d 807 (2001). In 1972, the Board designated the TSSAA as "the organization to supervise and regulate" interscholastic athletics and specifically approved the TSSAA's rules and regulations, including the recruiting rule. Id. In 1996, the Board dropped the rule expressly designating the TSSAA as regulator but did not change its relationship with the organization. Id. at 292-93, 121 S.Ct. 924. At all times relevant to the present case, Ronnie Carter served as executive director of the TSSAA.
Brentwood Academy is an independent school in Brentwood, Tennessee, and a member of the TSSAA. In 1998, the school had about 520 students in grades six through twelve. Brentwood's athletic teams, especially its football team, have been very successful in interscholastic competitions, even though its enrollment is smaller than many of its competitors. At the time of the events in question, Brentwood's Headmaster was Bill Brown; the Athletic Director and Head Football Coach was Carlton Flatt; and the Director of Admissions was Nancy Brasher. Brentwood paid a fee to the TSSAA to renew its membership on an annual basis.
The TSSAA has promulgated a "recruiting rule" in order to regulate the attempts of secondary schools to recruit middle school student athletes for athletic programs. The rule, found in the TSSAA's Bylaws, reads:
The use of undue influence on a student (with or without an athletic record), his or her parents or guardians of a student by any person connected, or not connected, with the school to secure or to retain a student for athletic purposes shall be a violation of the recruiting rule.
The bylaws also include a number of questions and answers and other guidelines that are known as interpretive commentary. While these are meant to aid in the interpretation of the recruiting rule, they are not binding on the TSSAA Board of Control. Carter agreed that the recruiting rule itself is "all that really counts everything else underneath it, the interpretative commentary is discretionary and it depends on the totality of the circumstances."
Excerpts from the interpretive commentary include the following:
1.
Q. How is undue influence interpreted in the recruiting rule?
A. A person or persons exceeding what is appropriate or normal and offering an incentive or inducement to a student with or without an athletic record.
...
3.
Q. Is it permissible for a coach to contact a student or his or her parents prior to his enrollment in the school?
A. No, a coach may not contact a student or his or her parents prior to his enrollment in the school. This shall apply to all students whether or not they have an athletic record.
4.
Q. What are some of the guides [sic] used in determining whether there has been undue influence used which would result in a violation of the recruiting rule?
3. Any initial contact or prearranged contact by a member of the coaching staff or representative of the school and a prospective student/athlete enrolled in any member school except where there is a definite feeder pattern.
4. Any initial contact or prearranged contact by a member of the coaching staff or representative of the school and a prospective student/athlete in the seventh grade and above at any non-member school except where there is a definite feeder pattern involving the schools.
...
Private...schools may not contact students enrolled at the public schools. Public schools may not contact students enrolled at the private schools.
...
7. Admitting students to athletic contests free of charge when there is an admission being charged at the contest except where there is a definite feeder pattern involved with the school.
The "definite feeder pattern" exception does not apply to Brentwood, except with regard to those students who are enrolled at Brentwood Academy itself in the sixth grade or higher.
In some form, the recruiting rule has been in effect at least since the early 1950s and probably earlier. It has undergone various changes; the auxiliary questions and answers and guidelines were added during the 1980s and 90s.
In 1997, a number of coaches at public high schools that were TSSAA members reported various alleged recruiting violations by Brentwood to the TSSAA. On behalf of the TSSAA, Carter and other TSSAA officials began an investigation into the allegations. During the investigation, Brentwood supplied Carter with a copy of a letter Flatt sent to various eighth grade boys in April 1997 as well as information regarding phone calls Flatt made to the families of the boys to whom the letter was sent. The letter read, in part:
Having officially enrolled at Brentwood Academy, the TSSAA allows you to participate in spring football practice. If you are not currently involved in a sport at your school, we would like to invite you to practice with your new team.... Due to the inconvenience to your parents, please do not feel that you must attend every practice. However, I do feel that getting involved as soon as possible would definitely be to your advantage.... We are certainly glad that you decided to become an Eagle.
The letter was signed, "Your Coach, Carlton Flatt." This letter was sent to all incoming ninth grade male students who had applied, been tested and admitted, and signed enrollment contracts with Brentwood.1 Flatt testified that after the letter was mailed, he received "a couple of phone calls" from parents of boys who received the letter with questions about the letter and the necessity of the boys attending practice. As a result of these calls, Flatt decided to call each of the families of the boys who received the letter to clarify that the spring practice was not mandatory and should not trump any other academic or...
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