Moreland v. Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic League

• Decision Date: 27 February 1978
• Docket Number: No. 77-1576,77-1576
• Citation: 572 F.2d 121
• Parties: Floyd MORELAND, a minor by his next friend Maggie Moreland, Appellant, v. WESTERN PENNSYLVANIA INTERSCHOLASTIC ATHLETIC LEAGUE and Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association and School District of the Borough of Aliquippa.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Third Circuit

Page 121

572 F.2d 121

Floyd MORELAND, a minor by his next friend Maggie Moreland, Appellant, v. WESTERN PENNSYLVANIA INTERSCHOLASTIC ATHLETIC LEAGUE and Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association and School District of the Borough of Aliquippa.

No. 77-1576.

United States Court of Appeals Third Circuit.

Argued Jan. 13, 1978.

Decided Feb. 27, 1978.

John W. Dineen, Albert J. Jones, Timothy P. O'Brien, Neighborhood Legal Services Association, Aliquippa, Pa., for appellant.

McNees, Wallace & Nurick, William M. Young, Jr., Rod J. Pera, Harrisburg, Pa., for Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association and Western Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic League.

Before ALDISERT and HUNTER, Circuit Judges, and CAHN, District Judge. ^*

OPINION OF THE COURT

ALDISERT, Circuit Judge.

The question for decision is whether a high school basketball player was denied equal protection when his team was foreclosed from playing in post-season athletic league competition because it was placed under suspension for prior violations of league rules. Appellant Floyd Moreland, a high school junior at the commencement of this action, sought injunctive relief under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 against his local and state leagues, and his school district. After a hearing and upon motion by the defendants, the district court dismissed the complaint.

I.

After conducting the hearing on appellant's preliminary injunction request, at which both parties presented evidence, the district court found that Moreland was a member of the Aliquippa, Pennsylvania, high school basketball team which won the 1976-1977 section championship of the Western Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic League (WPIAL). All Pennsylvania public high schools are eligible for membership in WPIAL's parent athletic league, the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association (PIAA), whose stated purposes are to develop an "interscholastic athletic program which will promote, protect and conserve the health and physical welfare of all participants(;) to formulate and maintain policies that will safeguard the educational values of interscholastic athletics and cultivate high ideals of good sportsmanship (; and) to promote uniformity of standards in all interscholastic athletic competition." PIAA Constitution, 1976-77 PIAA Handbook, Article II (Defendant's Exhibit 2).

The "PIAA Philosophy" is stated as a preamble to its by-laws:

It is unconscionable that a school or any of its professional employees would subvert the high purposes of interscholastic athletics by condoning any violation of the rules which is inimical to the intent of the By-laws. To involve boys in any procedure or practice which "gets around the rules" is unworthy of a professional person associated with athletics.

1976-77 PIAA Handbook 7. PIAA by-laws relating to attendance provide that one who has been absent for 20 or more school days in a semester shall not be eligible to participate in any athletic contest until he has been in attendance for a total of 60 school days following his twentieth day of absence, Art. III, Sec. 2; that 15 days or more enrollment in a semester shall constitute one semester of enrollment, Art. III, Sec. 3; that a school may be suspended for using an ineligible player, Art. XII, Sec. 2B(2); and that a school may be publicly censured, Art. XII, Sec. 6, or placed on probation, Art. XII, Sec. 7, for violation of these rules.

Evidence presented at the hearing disclosed that in October 1976, the PIAA sanctioned Aliquippa High School pursuant to these by-laws for using players who were ineligible because of absenteeism on its football and basketball teams during the 1973 and 1975 seasons. The Aliquippa School Board passed a resolution accepting the punishment meted out by the PIAA: all games which were played during the years the violations occurred were forfeited to the opponents; the school board, the high school principal, and the football and basketball coaches who were in office during the 1973-75 seasons were officially censured; and Aliquippa's football and basketball teams were declared ineligible for any post-season competition, including sectional playoff, district and PIAA championship contests, for a period of two years, at least until the end of the 1977-78 school year. (Defendant's Exhibit 1).

The district court found that although under ordinary circumstances Moreland's team would have been eligible for post-season play, the two-year PIAA suspension prevented it from doing so in the 1976-1977 season. ¹ It further found that no members of the 1976-1977 basketball team were involved in the violations; that Floyd Moreland "is an above average player to whom post season tournament play is an important factor in receiving publicity and recruiting attention frequently leading to college scholarships"; and that post-season tournament play attracts college scouts and coaches.

Pressing only an equal protection claim on appeal, appellant contends he was treated differently from other members of varsity basketball teams which participate in post-season tournaments in Pennsylvania. He also asserts unequal treatment because Aliquippa athletic teams other than football and bastketball are eligible for post-season WPIAL tournament play.

II.

At the outset it is important to emphasize that appellant presents no due process claim on appeal. We are specifically informed that "(a)ppellant does not in any way claim a federally protected 'right' to play basketball or to participate in interscholastic athletics." Appellant's Brief at 7. Although appellant urges that the district court did not properly distinguish between those cases brought pursuant to due process claims and those brought pursuant to equal protection claims, our examination of the district judge's opinion persuades us that the trial court did make the necessary distinction. Perceiving Moreland's contentions as an admixture of claims of denial of due process and equal protection, ² the district judge disposed of the due process contentions by concluding that the asserted claim did "not rise to the level of violations of specific constitutional guarantees . . . . Wood v. Strickland, 420 U.S. 308, 326, 95 S.Ct. 992, 43 L.Ed.2d 214 (1975)." Slip Opinion at 7, quoting Zeller v. Board of Education, 517 F.2d 600 (3d Cir. 1975).

The equal protection contention, the specific argument now urged upon us, was the subject of separate treatment. The court concluded, in this regard, that "the suspension was rationally related to (PIAA's) purpose in bringing about compliance with the PIAA regulations by a member of the Association (the school district)." ³ Slip Opinion at 5.

A.

In addressing the equal protection claim, we must decide initially whether the PIAA rules for the regulation of interscholastic play operate to the disadvantage of a suspect class or impinge upon a fundamental right explicitly or implicitly protected by the Constitution, thereby requiring strict judicial scrutiny. If not, the rules must still be examined to determine if they pass the "rational basis test." Appellant concedes that it is not necessary to resort to strict judicial scrutiny and that the test is that articulated in San Antonio Independent School District v. Rodriguez,411 U.S. 1, 17, 93 S.Ct. 1278, 1288, 36 L.Ed.2d 16 (1973), whether the league schema may "rationally (further) some legitimate, articulated state purpose." We agree that this is the proper standard of review. ⁴ See also Dandridge v. Williams, 397 U.S. 471, 485, 90 S.Ct. 1153, 25 L.Ed.2d 491 (1970); F. S. Royster Guano Co. v. Virginia, 253 U.S. 412, 415, 40 S.Ct. 560, 64 L.Ed. 989 (1920). Moreover, the parties concede that the necessary state action is present to confer subject matter jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1343 in order to afford plaintiff a possible remedy under 42 U.S.C. § 1983.

B.

We now examine the rules to determine if they are reasonably related to a legitimate state school interest. As previously observed, the stated purposes of the league's rules are to "safeguard the educational values of interscholastic athletics and cultivate high ideals of good sportsmanship" and "to promote uniformity of standards in all interscholastic athletic competition." Because over 1,200 Pennsylvania schools are voluntary members of WPIAL, it is readily apparent that interscholastic athletics are regarded as an important adjunct to the academic curriculum of the schools. PIAA District 7 Chairman Michael Arbutina testified to this effect at the hearing: "High school athletics should be considered as a part of the total school program and I think that the rules and regulations under which interscholastic athletics (are) governed is an attempt to keep it in its proper perspective in . . . the entire educational program." Transcript at 61.

A rule regulating attendance at class thus vindicates the league's legitimate interest in educational values. This is a league of school athletes, not an independent athletic union, nor a professional basketball association. Not only is it self-evident that a rule regulating class attendance reasonably relates to the educational values of the school league, but the rule's rational basis is also clearly demonstrated by the converse: without attendance rules, a school could recruit, for the duration of a season, athletes who possess few or no academic ties to the institution.

Similarly, the rule permitting suspension of a school for past violations of the eligible player rule rationally furthers the stated purposes. The stigma attached to a school, its principal, and its coaches, for violating the "rules of the game", serves as a meaningful deterrent to future violations. We note in this regard that the suspension imposed on Aliquippa was due partially to violations which had occurred in addition to the absenteeism violations during the 1973 and 1975 seasons. At the time Moreland entered Aliquippa High School, and at the time he entered the...