Opinion ID: 767022
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Sex-Based Discrimination Under Section 1983

Text: 21 The plaintiffs-appellants do not dispute the general preemption principle set forth in Waid, but they do contend this principle is not applicable to their Section 1983 claims based on sex discrimination. The plaintiffs-appellants' argument rests on the idea that the existence of preemption depends on the availability of a claim under Title IX, and a distinction between claims against institutions and claims against individuals. We have previously held that Title IX provides for suit only against institutions; it does not allow for suits against individual defendants. Smith v. Metropolitan Sch. Dist. Perry Township, 128 F.3d 1014, 1019 (7th Cir. 1997). The plaintiffs-appellants contend that because individual claims are not available under Title IX, individual claims must be available under Section 1983. Under this interpretation of Waid, Title IX preempts only Section 1983 suits against institutions, and the district court erred in dismissing the plaintiffs-appellants' claims against the individual defendants. After a review of our holding in Waid, we disagree. 22 By focusing on the availability of a claim against individual defendants, the plaintiffs- appellants misconstrue the doctrine of preemption. In providing for the remedies available under Title IX, Congress has created a regime for the redress of sex discrimination in athletic opportunities at federally-funded institutions. In order to be comprehensive, that regime need not include possible claims against both the institution and individuals involved. The fact that individual claims are not available under Title IX means that Congress has chosen suits against institutions as the means of redressing such wrongs. See Middlesex Cty. Sewerage Auth. v. National Sea Clammers Ass'n, 453 U.S. 1, 20 (1981) (holding that [w]hen the remedial devices provided in a particular Act are sufficiently comprehensive, they may suffice to demonstrate congressional intent to preclude the remedy of suits under sec. 1983). As we noted in Waid, in establishing Title IX, Congress intended to place the burden of compliance with civil rights law on educational institutions themselves, not on the individual officials associated with those institutions. Waid, 91 F.3d at 862. Here plaintiffs-appellants have a Title IX claim against Illinois State University. Under our holding in Waid, the district court was correct in determining that the availability of that claim preempts the remedies available for sex discrimination under Section 1983. 23