St. Paul's Episcopal Sch. v. Ala. High Sch. Athletic Ass'n
| Decision Date | 27 June 2018 |
| Docket Number | CIVIL ACTION 18-0241-WS-B |
| Parties | ST. PAUL'S EPISCOPAL SCHOOL, Plaintiff, v. THE ALABAMA HIGH SCHOOL ATHLETIC ASSOCIATION, et al., Defendants. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — Southern District of Alabama |
This matter comes before the Court on plaintiff's Motion for Preliminary Injunction (doc. 2). The Motion, which has been the subject of extensive briefing on an expedited basis, is now ripe for disposition.1
Last November, the Alabama High School Athletic Association adopted a "competitive balance factor" rule to increase by one level the classification of certain private-school members' sports teams with a demonstrated track record of consistent, recent success. St. Paul's EpiscopalSchool stands to be directly affected by this rule in the 2018-2020 classification period with respect to several of its athletic programs, including most notably its football team, which will "level up" from 5A to 6A. After its attempts to persuade the Association to vacate or suspend the rule at two board hearings earlier this year were unsuccessful, St. Paul's filed this civil action against the Association and its Executive Director. The Complaint alleges that the Association violated St. Paul's constitutional rights in three respects (equal protection, substantive due process, procedural due process) and also breached certain obligations and duties in its Constitution, Bylaws and Handbook.
Contemporaneously with the Complaint, St. Paul's filed a Motion for Preliminary Injunction, seeking an order preliminarily restraining and enjoining the Association from enforcing this new competitive balance rule. Given the time-sensitive nature of the relief requested, the parties briefed the matter on an expedited basis. Counsel for both sides are to be commended for preparing comprehensive, well-written, helpful memoranda addressing complex constitutional and factual issues under extraordinary temporal pressure. Regardless of the Court's ultimate determinations about the merits of the theories and arguments presented, the quality of lawyering has been uniformly excellent. The Court's analysis and understanding has benefited greatly from counsel's diligent and thoughtful advocacy.
Upon careful consideration of the parties' arguments and exhibits, the Court concludes that preliminary injunctive relief is not appropriate at this time. A preliminary injunction is an extraordinary and drastic remedy, for which a movant bears a heavy burden of persuasion. In this case, St. Paul's has failed to demonstrate a substantial likelihood of success on the merits. With respect to the equal protection claim, St. Paul's has made an insufficient showing that the Association was motivated by "bare animus" against private schools; therefore, the challenged classification must be evaluated using deferential rational-basis review. Under this standard, the competitive balance rule is presumed constitutional, and must be upheld if any reasonably conceivable set of facts could provide a rational basis for it, even if the rule seems unwise and even though it works to a particular group's disadvantage. The AHSAA has a legitimate interest in promoting competitive balance for its members. The challenged rule could rationally be viewed as furthering that legitimate interest. Indeed, the requisite rational basis may be found in data reflecting private schools' disproportionate and ever-growing success in winning state championships, as well as in the numerous perceived advantages enjoyed by private schoolsrelative to public schools. St. Paul's has not shown a substantial likelihood that it can negate every one of those rational grounds for adoption of the competitive balance rule.
As for plaintiff's substantive due process claim, no substantial likelihood of success has been shown. The property rights identified by St. Paul's are shaky, at best. The proper standard of review for this claim is the same deferential rational-basis test utilized in the equal protection context, so St. Paul's can be no more successful on a substantive due process theory than it can on equal protection. St. Paul's attempt to seek heightened review on the grounds that the Association acted with "deliberate indifference to an extremely great risk of serious injury" cannot succeed (even assuming the legitimacy of that formulation of the standard in this Circuit) because the record does not support a finding that the Association callously, recklessly adopted this rule without heed of dire safety consequences. Next, plaintiff's procedural due process claim fails to provide a sufficient basis for preliminary injunctive relief because the record strongly suggests that the Association provided St. Paul's with ample and constitutionally adequate procedural safeguards, including allowing it to appear before the board twice to make its case against the competitive balance rule before it went into effect. Finally, no preliminary injunctive relief is warranted on St. Paul's state-law declaratory judgment claim because the various "duties" and "obligations" that plaintiff ascribes to the Association either appear not to be required by any contract or mutually explicit understanding, or do not appear to have been breached by passage of the competitive balance rule.
Today's ruling is in many ways a reflection of the daunting hurdle that a plaintiff in St. Paul's position must overcome in order to obtain preliminary injunctive relief. It is not the role of this Court to decide whether the competitive balance rule is the wisest, fairest, best or most efficient way of advancing the objective of promoting competitive balance in interscholastic athletics. Whether the Court thinks it is a good rule or a bad rule is irrelevant. This Court may not substitute its judgment for that of the Association. Moreover, the Alabama Supreme Court has repeatedly emphasized the AHSAA's near-absolute authority in its own affairs. A courtroom is rarely the proper field for competition when it comes to disputes over high-school athletic rules. Alabama courts take a hands-off approach to controversies concerning regulation of high-school athletics, at least in the absence of clear and convincing evidence of fraud, collusion, bias or arbitrariness. It does not appear substantially likely that any of those factors are present here. For these reasons, the Court finds that St. Paul's has not shown a substantial likelihood that thecompetitive balance rule is unconstitutional, or that it violates the terms of the Association's Constitution, Bylaws and Handbook. The Motion for Preliminary Injunction is properly denied.
The Alabama High School Athletic Association ("AHSAA") is a voluntary association comprising public, private and parochial schools in the State of Alabama. (Savarese Decl. (doc. 24, Exh. B), ¶ 2.) The stated purpose of the AHSAA, which was founded in 1921, is to regulate, coordinate and promote its member schools' interscholastic athletic programs. (Id.) At present, the AHSAA's membership includes 373 public schools and 51 non-public schools, such that non-public schools constitute 13.6% of the Association's total membership. (Id., ¶ 5.) Among those members is plaintiff, St. Paul's Episcopal School, a private school located in Mobile, Alabama. St. Paul's has been a member of the AHSAA since 1976. (Ingram Aff. , ¶ 24 A bona fide dispute has arisen between St. Paul's and AHSAA relating to certain athletic classification rules adopted by the AHSAA, to-wit: (i) a provision called the "Multiplier Rule" that was adopted in 1999; and (ii) a provision called the "Competitive Balance Factor" that was adopted in November 2017. Plaintiff's pending Motion for Preliminary Injunction seeks an order restraining and enjoining the AHSAA from enforcing the Competitive Balance Factor rule against any of the Association's private school members.
At the beginning of each school year, the AHSAA promulgates the AHSAA Handbook, which compiles its Constitution, Bylaws and current rules and regulations in one location. (Savarese Decl., ¶ 4.) All member schools agree to be bound by the Constitution, Bylaws and rules set forth in the Handbook. (Id., ¶ 6.) The Handbook confirms that "[m]ajor aims of the AHSAA are to serve the needs of its member schools in conducting their interscholastic athletic programs and to assist member schools in reaching the educational objectives as established by their school systems." (Id., ¶ 4 & Exh. B-1 at 94.) According to the AHSAA's Constitution, "[t]he object of this Association shall be to promote pure amateur athletic competition in the high schools of Alabama." (Doc. 24, Exh. B-1 at 16.) The Constitution provides that management of the AHSAA's affairs is vested in a Legislative Counsel and a Central Board of Control. (Id. at 17.) The Central Board "shall have the power to classify member schools into two or more divisions for the purpose of athletic competition," and "shall have authority over any matter related to championship play." (Id. at 20.) The AHSAA Constitution further provides thatrulings made by the AHSAA's Executive Director may be appealed to the Central Board, which "has the authority to make the final decision on any case appealed to it." (Id. at 22.)
Pursuant to the Handbook, "High schools are divided into seven classifications (1A, 2A, 3A, 4A, 5A, 6A and 7A) for competition in championship programs." (Id. at 88.) As a general proposition, "Classification is based on Average Daily Membership (ADM) figures furnished by the State Department of Education for the upper three grades plus ninth grade students that are retained in the ninth grade." (Id.) For the 2018-2020 classification period, the relevant ranges of enrollment for AHSAA classification purposes include the following: (i) 4A, 297.9 to 377.45; (ii) 5A, 377.95 to 604.15; (iii) 6A, 605.7...
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