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By Ferd Lewis
Advertiser Columnist
This just in ... Title IX is the law.
Still.
Actually, Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 has been the law of the land for a while now. The 33rd birthday of what is now known as the Patsy Mink Act, in honor of the late Hawai'i congresswoman who was among those in its forefront, is just two weeks away.
Not that, even with the passage of so many years or growing mountains of legal opinions or public opinion, it is universally accepted or without challenge.
We were reminded of this as well as the lopsided and fruitless nature of the battle to overturn it yesterday when the Supreme Court reaffirmed Title IX's authority by rejecting the latest attack with a thunder Shaquille O'Neal would envy.
The court refused to even consider a suit by the National Wrestling Coaches Association and other groups who had sought to be able to sue federal officials for discrimination against men for enforcing opportunities for women.
If you're counting, that's two major Supreme Court triumphs for Title IX's sports reach in three months. In March the Supremes significantly expanded the scope of the law to cover whistle blowers who spoke out about violations of Title IX.
We're told that the Supreme Court, as well as nine of the 13 federal circuits to have fielded Title IX cases, have all reaffirmed its standing. Everybody, it seems, but a justice of the peace in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., has weighed in on this one.
Does that sound like a law living on borrowed time? Still, the challengers vow to keep coming, hitting their heads against a legal wall, screaming at the moon.
Title IX was originally brought into being mostly to address other inequities in education, athletics just filling in well down the line of priorities. But, curiously, it is in athletics where the biggest fuss has occurred and the most people have had to be dragged kicking and screaming into compliance soon to be 33 years later.
By mandating equal rights in education, Title IX has given two generations of women overdue opportunities in many areas that their grandmothers hardly dared dream of. In sports, from park leagues to the Olympics, it has changed the face of sports and perceptions of those who play them.
What is often overlooked is that Title IX was never intended to match the sexes against each other in the courts. It was not supposed to be a rob Peter to pay Paula proposition and shouldn't. But as schools have set their priorities that is what it has unfortunately sometimes turned into.
Title IX has been with us for a while now and, as the Supreme Court keeps saying on everything that passes, it isn't going anywhere anytime soon. One of these days the understanding will be that the best policy is to work with it.
Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8044.
