Opinion ID: 1391000
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Fourteenth Amendment Equal Protection

Text: In analyzing gender-based discrimination, the United States Supreme Court has been willing to take into account actual differences between the sexes, including physical ones. In Michael M. v. Sonoma County, Superior Court, 450 U.S. 464, 469, 101 S.Ct. 1200, 1204, 67 L.Ed.2d 437, 442 (1981), the Court explained that it has consistently upheld statutes where the gender-based discrimination is not invidious but rather realistically reflects the fact that the sexes are not similarly situated in certain circumstances. On the other hand, the court has disapproved classifications that reflect archaic and overbroad generalizations. Schlesinger v. Ballard, 419 U.S. 498, 508, 95 S.Ct. 572, 577, 42 L.Ed.2d 610, 618 (1975). Under the United States Constitution, a gender-based discrimination is subject to a level of scrutiny somewhere between the traditional equal protection analysis and the highest level of scrutiny utilized for suspect classes. The intermediate level of scrutiny as applied to gender-based discrimination was stated in Craig v. Boren, 429 U.S. 190, 197, 97 S.Ct. 451, 457, 50 L.Ed.2d 397, 407 (1976): [C]lassifications by gender must serve important governmental objectives and must be substantially related to achievement of those objectives in order to withstand an equal protection challenge. Under the middle-tier analysis for gender-based discrimination claims, courts have recognized that it is constitutionally permissible under certain circumstances for public schools to maintain separate sports teams for males and females so long as they are substantially equivalent. [5] This result has been justified by one or more of the following reasons: (1) there are physical and psychological differences between males and females; (2) the maintenance of separate teams promotes athletic opportunities for women; and, as a corollary to (2), (3) if there were not separate teams, men might dominate in certain sports. [6] E.g., O'Connor v. Board of Educ. of School Dist. No. 23, 645 F.2d 578 (7th Cir.), cert. denied, 454 U.S. 1084, 102 S.Ct. 641, 70 L.Ed.2d 619 (1981); Clark v. Arizona Interscholastic Athletic Ass'n, 695 F.2d 1126 (9th Cir.1982), cert. denied, 464 U.S. 818, 104 S.Ct. 79, 78 L.Ed.2d 90 (1983); Lafler v. Athletic Bd. of Control, 536 F.Supp. 104 (W.D.Mich.1982); Hoover v. Meiklejohn, 430 F.Supp. 164 (D.Colo.1977); Carnes v. Tennessee Secondary School Ass'n, 415 F.Supp. 569 (E.D.Tenn.1976); Ritacco v. Norwin School Dist., 361 F.Supp. 930 (W.D.Pa.1973); Gilpin v. Kansas State High School Activities Ass'n, Inc., 377 F.Supp. 1233 (D.Kan.1973); Bucha v. Illinois High School Ass'n, 351 F.Supp. 69 (N.D.Ill.1972); Haas v. South Bend Community School Corp., 259 Ind. 515, 289 N.E.2d 495 (1972). Cf. Sullivan v. City of Cleveland Heights, 869 F.2d 961 (6th Cir. 1989) (ten-year-old female hockey player was not denied equal protection because she was required to change clothes in a restroom which was substantially similar to the locker room utilized by the male hockey players). While courts have recognized the concept of substantial equivalency in the area of interscholastic sports, this does not mean that mere superficial equivalency will be found constitutional under equal protection principles. We are not cited nor have we found a case precisely on point. Several courts have held that Little League baseball teams must, under equal protection principles, permit female players to try out. E.g., Fortin v. Darlington Little League, Inc., 514 F.2d 344 (1st Cir.1975); National Org. for Women v. Little League Baseball, Inc., 127 N.J.Super. 522, 318 A.2d 33, aff'd mem., 67 N.J. 320, 338 A.2d 198 (1974). However, in these cases, there was not a comparable team for females. From the record in this case, we find that the games of baseball and softball are not substantially equivalent. There is, of course, a superficial similarity between the games because both utilize a similar format. However, when the rules are analyzed, [7] there is a substantial disparity in the equipment used and in the skill level required. The difference begins with the size of the ball and its delivery, and differences continue throughout. The softball is larger and must be thrown underhand, which forecloses the different types of pitching that can be accomplished in the overhand throw of a baseball. There are ten players on the softball team and nine on a baseball team. The distance between the bases in softball is sixty feet, while in baseball it is ninety feet. The pitcher's mound is elevated in baseball and is not in softball. The distance from the pitcher's mound to home plate is sixty feet in baseball and only forty feet in softball. In baseball, a bat of forty-two inches is permitted, while in softball the maximum length is thirty-four inches. Moreover, the skill level is much more demanding in baseball because the game is played at a more vigorous pace. There are more intangible rewards available if one can make the baseball team. For a skilled player, such as the record demonstrates Ms. Israel to be, it would be deeply frustrating to be told she could not try out for the baseball team, not because she did not possess the necessary skills, but only because she was female. The entire thrust of the equal protection doctrine is to avoid this type of artificial distinction based solely on gender. We agree with the SSAC that by providing a softball team for females, it was promoting more athletic opportunities for females. However, this purpose does not satisfy the equal protection mandate requiring substantial equivalency. We do not believe that by permitting females to try out for the boys' baseball team, a mass exodus from the girls' softball team will result. There are obvious practical considerations that will forestall such a result. Gender does not provide an automatic admission to play on a boys' baseball team. The team is selected from those who apply and possess the requisite skill to make the team. [8] What we deal with in this case is an opportunity to have a chance to try out for the team. Aside from the baseball-softball dichotomy, other athletic events ordinarily operate on the same rules such that the substantial equivalency issue would be unlikely to arise.