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4th Circuit affirms JMU sports cuts
Listen to this articleRICHMOND, Va. — A federal appeals court has upheld James Madison University’s decision to eliminate 10 sports teams to achieve gender balance.
A three-judge panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed a federal judge’s dismissal of the lawsuit filed by Equity in Athletics Inc., a coalition of student athletes, coaches, parents and fans.
The organization sued after JMU announced in 2006 that it was cutting seven men’s teams and three women’s teams to comply with Title IX, the 1972 federal law requiring gender equality in men’s and women’s intercollegiate sports.
In a published opinion Monday, the unanimous three-judge panel rejected the group’s claim that the move violated the equal protection rights of male athletes by failing to consider that proportionately more men than women want to participate in sports.
“While JMU relied on sex in making its decision about which teams to cut, its efforts were an attempt to bring athletic participation in line with the student body population,” Judge André M. Davis wrote for the court. “As such, although more male athletes might have been affected by the cuts, the result was to ensure that the student body as a whole was ‘substantially equally’ represented in the availability of opportunities for athletic participation.
The case is Equity in Athletics, Inc. v. Department of Education, 10-1259.
