Playing fair

Sports | A pair of little-noticed rulings may leave their mark on women's sports | Jamie Dean

The bent basketball rims in the girls' gymnasium at Ensley High School in Birmingham, Ala., recently made way for coach Roderick Jackson to play offense on a different sort of court more than 700 miles away.

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled on March 18 that Mr. Jackson could sue the Birmingham Board of Education for firing him as Ensley High coach. He contends that school officials fired him as a coach but kept him as a teacher because he complained that his female basketball players did not receive the same facilities and funding as the boys' team.

Previously Mr. Jackson tried to sue under Title IX—the federal law prohibiting schools from discriminating in sports programs on the basis of sex—but lost in lower federal courts, which said the law only allows the direct target of discrimination to sue. The high court disagreed and ruled that Title IX should also protect witnesses who report discrimination.

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April 16, 2005, Vol. 20, No. 15

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