Communities v. Michigan High School
| Citation | 377 F.3d 504 |
| Decision Date | 27 July 2004 |
| Docket Number | No. 02-1127.,02-1127. |
| Parties | COMMUNITIES FOR EQUITY, on behalf of itself, its members and all those similarly situated; Diane Madsen, on behalf of her minor daughters and all those similarly situated; and Jay Roberts-Eveland, on behalf of her minor daughter and all those similarly situated, Plaintiffs-Appellees, v. MICHIGAN HIGH SCHOOL ATHLETIC ASSOCIATION, INC., on behalf of itself and its members, Defendant-Appellant. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Sixth Circuit |
v.
MICHIGAN HIGH SCHOOL ATHLETIC ASSOCIATION, INC., on behalf of itself and its members, Defendant-Appellant.
Appeal from the United States District Court for the Western District of Michigan, Richard A. Enslen, J.
Page 505
Dennis J. Dimsey (briefed), Teresa Kwong (briefed), U.S. Department of Justice Civil Rights Division, Appellate Section, Washington, DC, Amicus Curiae.
Page 506
H. Rhett Pinsky (briefed), Pinsky, Smith, Fayette & Hulswit, Grand Rapids, MI, Kristen Gallee (argued and briefed), Equity Legal, Alexandria, VA, Neena K. Chaudhry (briefed), Marcia D. Greenberger (briefed), National Women's Law Center Washington, DC, for Plaintiff-Appellee.
Edmund J. Sikorski, Jr. (argued and briefed), Ann Arbor, MI, William M. Azkoul (briefed), Azkoul & Azkoul, Grand Rapids, MI, for Defendant-Appellant.
Before: KENNEDY and GILMAN, Circuit Judges; SHADUR, District Judge.*
GILMAN, Circuit Judge.
Communities for Equity — an organization of parents and high school athletes that advocates on behalf of Title IX compliance and gender equity in athletics — and the individual plaintiffs (collectively, CFE) brought a class action lawsuit against the Michigan High School Athletic Association (MHSAA), arguing that MHSAA's scheduling of high school sports seasons in Michigan discriminated against female athletes on the basis of gender. The district court concluded that MHSAA's actions violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, Title IX of the Educational Amendments of 1972, and Michigan's Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act. For the reasons set forth below, we AFFIRM the judgment of the district court with regard to the plaintiffs' Equal Protection claim, thus finding no need to reach the Title IX and state-law issues.
A. Factual background
At issue in this case is whether MHSAA's scheduling of athletic seasons and tournaments for six girls' sports — basketball, volleyball, soccer, Lower Peninsula golf, Lower Peninsula swimming and diving, and tennis — violates the law. With the exception of golf, all of these sports are scheduled during the nontraditional season (meaning a season of the year that differs from when the sport is typically played). Cmtys. for Equity v. Michigan High Sch. Athletic Ass'n., 178 F.Supp.2d 805, 807 (W.D.Mich.2001). Although Lower Peninsula girls' golf is played in the spring — the traditional season for golf — the fall season, when the boys play, is more advantageous. Id. No boys' sports are scheduled in nonadvantageous seasons. Id. at 838.
Girls have historically played in the less advantageous seasons because of the way that high school athletics developed in Michigan. MHSAA's executive director, John Roberts, explained in a 1990 article titled Sports and Their Seasons, published in MHSAA's Bulletin, that "[b]oys' sports were in [MHSAA member] schools first and girls' sports, which came later, were fitted around the pre-existing boys program." Id. at 815.
In its findings of fact, the district court painstakingly discussed each sport at issue and analyzed why play in the nontraditional season (or, in the case of golf, in the traditional season) harmed female athletes. Id. at 817-836. Among the harms found by the district court are the following:
[G]irls' basketball [is played] in the fall. Forty-eight states schedule girls' basketball in the winter....
Page 507
Michigan's female high school basketball players do not get to participate in "March Madness" or the excitement and publicity surrounding this time period when the rest of the country's high schools and colleges are participating in championship basketball tournaments....
Kristi Madsen said that not being able, as a high school basketball player, to participate in the "March Madness" hype made her feel "[a]ngry. I didn't like it. Again, the guys get a ton of special perks or attention because it's `March Madness' and because they are playing in March, during `March Madness.'"...
Michigan girls have decreased ability to be nationally ranked or obtain All-American honors because they play basketball during the non-traditional fall season....
[I]t is undisputed that if Michigan girls played basketball during the winter season, they would, at the very least, be on `equal footing' with Michigan boys and with girls in the rest of the country with respect to collegiate recruiting....
In volleyball, the non-traditional season is the disadvantageous season for girls.... Michigan high school girls' volleyball is played in the winter season.
The traditional playing season for women's volleyball is the fall. Forty-eight states play high school girls' volleyball in the fall. The NCAA schedules women's volleyball in the fall. Although the MHSAA does not currently sponsor boys' volleyball, the MHSAA's executive staff and volleyball committee have recommended that once the sport is adopted, it be played in the spring when the NCAA schedules men's volleyball.
College volleyball recruiting focuses on the amateur, private club programs, like those sponsored by an organization called the United States Volleyball Association (USAV), rather than the high school programs ...
The USAV and AAU, another private club program, seasons for high school age players to play in their amateur programs are from January through June or July. MHSAA rules prohibit athletes from participating in USAV or AAU club volleyball during their December through March high school season.
Michigan girls who participate in high school volleyball are not able to participate in USAV club volleyball until April, after the MHSAA season has ended, while players in other states have been playing club volleyball since January. The MHSAA prohibits students from playing on any team other than a school team during the MHSAA-defined season in that sport. By the end of the MHSAA season, most of the regional and national USAV tournaments have been filled by non-Michigan teams. When there are openings, Michigan club teams are placed "at the very bottom of the tournament where they do not get a chance to compete at the high levels because they haven't been competing...." Michigan club teams have difficulty excelling at these tournaments because they are becoming accustomed to playing with new teammates and a new coach while their competitors have already been playing together for four months. It is therefore more difficult for recruiters to evaluate Michigan players at these tournaments....
[T]he Court finds that the spring season is the inferior season, as compared to fall, for playing soccer in Michigan....
The NCAA schedules women's soccer in the fall....
Page 508
The MHSAA schedules the boys' soccer state championship tournament in the fall, at the same time that the NCAA schedules men's soccer....
The MHSAA's scheduling of girls' soccer in the spring in Michigan disadvantages girls in several ways. Soccer fields in Michigan are often still frozen or snow-covered when the girls' season starts in the spring, so girls are forced inside for practice and tryouts. Thus, the regular season starts later than scheduled. As a result, Michigan girls must play three games a week over the course of the season to make up postponed games whereas Michigan boys play two games per week over the course of their season.
The increased number of games per week causes a greater risk of injury for girls that Michigan boys do not face....
Girls' opportunities for collegiate recruitment are decreased because college scholarships for soccer are awarded in November and April. Recruiters will not have had an opportunity to see female soccer players in Michigan in their senior year of high school before awarding first-round November scholarships because girls start their competitive season in late March. Michigan boys play during the fall season and are able to have four years of high school competition for college recruiters to consider....
The court finds that in Michigan, fall is the more advantageous season for playing high school golf....
Lower Peninsula girls' golf [is played] in the spring season....
Lower Peninsula boys' golf used to be in the spring, but the MHSAA moved it to the fall season in the 1970s so that boys' golf teams would have better access to golf courses. The MHSAA scheduled Lower Peninsula girls' golf in the spring, which was the season it had previously determined was less advantageous when it moved boys' golf.
In addition, because the NCAA letter of intent signing date is in early November, Michigan boys have four years of golf experience and scores on which to be evaluated. Michigan girls only have three years because their season occurs after the letter of intent signing date....
The Court finds that the winter season for swimming has advantages that outweigh advantages to swimming in fall....
[T]he Lower Peninsula girls' swimming and diving season [is] in the fall.
[The] Lower Peninsula boys' swimming and diving season [is] in the winter.
[T]he winter season is more advantageous than fall for swimming. For one reason, Michigan boys are able to go straight from the high school swimming season to the club tournaments, whereas Michigan girls have a gap in competition because their season has ended in November. Sectional and regional swim meets for U.S. Swimming take place in March. The Phillips 66 national swim championships are in March/April of each year. In diving, junior nationals are in March, so girls face a gap in competition between the end of their fall...
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