Supreme Court to weigh public school employee right to sue under Title IX |
Supreme Court to weigh public school employee right to sue under Title IX
The Supreme Court said Monday it will weigh whether federally funded school employees can privately sue over sex discrimination at their jobs under Title IX.
MaChelle Joseph, a women’s basketball coach, was fired from the Georgia Institute of Technology in 2019 after filing a complaint alleging discrimination against her and her program over the lesser resources she said it was allocated as compared to the men’s team.
Thomas Crowther, an art professor and artist, was a professor at Augusta University until his nonrenewal 2021, after students reported him for allegedly inappropriate conduct in class, including sexual harassment.
The justices agreed to hear the case after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit ruled that employees of public educational institutions do not have a private right of action to sue under Title IX, the landmark anti-discrimination law, splitting with eight other federal courts of appeals.
“The decision below vitiates the national uniformity of Title IX,” attorneys for the plaintiffs wrote in their petition to the justices. “Whether an employee can sue for employment discrimination under Title IX — which governs every educational institution receiving federal funds—now depends entirely on where she works.”
The 11th Circuit is the “sole........