Court Opinion

ID: 9429511
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-02 23:26:57.886856+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:23:19.661408
License: Public Domain

Justice Powell,
with whom The Chief Justice and Justice O’Connor join, concurring.
As I agree that the holding in this case is dictated by the language and legislative history of Title IX, and the regulations of the Department of Education, I join the Court’s decision. I do so reluctantly and write briefly to record my view that the case is an unedifying example of overzealousness on the part of the Federal Government.
Grove City College (Grove City) may be unique among colleges in our country; certainly there are few others like it. Founded more than a century ago in 1876, Grove City is an independent, coeducational liberal arts college. It describes itself as having “both a Christian world view and a freedom philosophy,” perceiving these as “interrelated.” App. A-22. At the time of this suit, it had about 2,200 students and tuition was surprisingly low for a private college.1 Some 140 of the College’s students were receiving Basic Educational Opportunity Grants (BEOG’s),2 and 342 had obtained Guaranteed Student Loans (GSL’s).3 The grants were made directly to the students through the Department of Education, and the student loans were guaranteed by the Federal Government. Apart from this indirect assistance, Grove City has followed an unbending policy of refusing all forms of government assistance, whether federal, state, or local. It was and is the policy of this small college to remain wholly inde*577pendent of government assistance, recognizing — as this case well illustrates — that with acceptance of such assistance one surrenders a certain measure of the freedom that Americans always have cherished.
This case involves a regulation adopted by the Department to implement § 901(a) of Title IX (20 U. S. C. § 1681(a)). It is well to bear in mind what § 901(a) provides:
“No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving federal financial assistance . . . .”
The sole purpose of the statute is to make unlawful “discrimination” by recipients of federal financial assistance on the “basis of sex.” The undisputed fact is that Grove City does not discriminate — and so far as the record in this case shows — never has discriminated against anyone on account of sex, race, or national origin. This case has nothing whatever to do with discrimination past or present. The College therefore has complied to the letter with the sole purpose of § 901(a).
As the Court describes, the case arises pursuant to a regulation adopted under Title IX that authorizes the Secretary to obtain from recipients of federal aid an “Assurance of Compliance” with Title IX and regulations issued thereunder. At the outset of this litigation, the Department insisted that by accepting students who received BEOG awards, Grove City’s entire institution was subject to regulation under Title IX. The College, in view of its policies and principles of independence and its record of nondiscrimination, objected to executing this Assurance. One would have thought that the Department, confronted as it is with cases of national importance that involve actual discrimination, would have respected the independence and admirable record of this College. But common sense and good judgment failed to pre*578vail. The Department chose to litigate, and instituted an administrative proceeding to compel Grove City to execute an agreement to operate all of its programs and activities in full compliance with all of the regulations promulgated under Title IX — despite the College’s record as an institution that had operated to date in full accordance with the letter and spirit of Title IX. The Administrative Law Judge who heard the case on September 15, 1978, did not relish his task.
On the basis of the evidence, which included the formal published statement of Grove City’s strong “nondiscrimination policy,” he stated:
“It should also be noted that there was not the slightest hint of any failure to comply with Title IX save the refusal to submit an executed assurance of compliance with Title IX. This refusal is obviously a matter of conscience and belief.” App. to Pet. for Cert. A-94 (emphasis added).4
The Administrative Law Judge further evidenced his reluctance by emphasizing that the regulations were “binding” upon him. Id., at A-95. He concluded that the scholarship grants and student loans to Grove City constituted indirect “federal financial assistance,” and in view of the failure of Grove City to execute the Assurance, the regulation required that the grants and loans to its students must be “terminated.” Id., at A-96. The College and four of its students then instituted this suit in 1978 challenging the validity of the regulations and seeking a declaratory judgment.
The effect of the Department’s termination of the student grants and loans would not have been limited to the College itself. Indeed, the most direct effect would have been upon the students themselves. Absent the availability of other scholarship funds, many of them would have had to abandon their college education or choose another school. It was to *579avoid these serious consequences, that this suit was instituted. The College prevailed in the District Court but lost in the Court of Appeals. Only after Grove City had brought its case before this Court, did the Department retreat to its present position that Title IX applies only to Grove City’s financial aid office. On this narrow theory, the Department has prevailed, having taken this small independent college, which it acknowledges has engaged in no discrimination whatever, through six years of litigation with the full weight of the Federal Government opposing it. I cannot believe that the Department will rejoice in its “victory.”
Justice Stevens,
concurring in part and concurring in the result.
For two reasons, I am unable to join Part III of the Court’s opinion. First, it is an advisory opinion unnecessary to today’s decision, and second, the advice is predicated on speculation rather than evidence.
The controverted issue in this litigation is whether Grove City College may be required to execute the “Assurance of Compliance with Title IX” tendered to it by the Secretary in order to continue receiving the benefits of the federal financial assistance provided by the BEOG program. The Court of Appeals affirmed the District Court’s decision that Grove City is a “recipient” of federal financial assistance, and reversed its decision that the Secretary could not terminate federal financial assistance because Grove City refused to execute the Assurance. The Court today holds (in Part II of its opinion) that Grove City is a recipient of federal financial assistance within the meaning of Title IX, and (in Part IV) that Grove City must execute the Assurance of Compliance in order to continue receiving that assistance. These holdings are fully sufficient to sustain the judgment the Court reviews, as the Court acknowledges by affirming that judgment.
In Part III of its opinion, the Court holds that Grove City is not required to refrain from discrimination on the basis of *580sex except in its financial aid program. In so stating, the Court decides an issue that is not in dispute. The Assurance of Compliance merely requires that it comply with Title IX “to the extent applicable to it.” See ante, at 560. The Secretary, who is responsible for administering Title IX, construes the statute as applicable only to Grove City’s financial aid program. All the Secretary seeks is a judgment that Title IX requires Grove City to promise not to discriminate in its financial aid program. The Court correctly holds that this program is subject to the requirements of Title IX, and that Grove City must promise not to discriminate in its operation of the program. But, there is no reason for the Court to hold that Grove City need not make a promise that the Secretary does not ask it to make, and that it in fact would not be making by signing the Assurance, in order to continue to receive federal financial assistance. It will be soon enough to decide the question discussed in Part III when and if the day comes that the Secretary asks Grove City to make some further promise in order to continue to receive federal financial assistance.
Moreover, the record in this case is far from adequate to decide the question raised in Part III. See Consolidated Rail Corp. v. Darrone, post, at 635-636. Assuming for the moment that participation in the BEOG program could not in itself make Title IX applicable to the entire institution, a factual inquiry is nevertheless necessary as to which of Grove City’s programs and activities can be said to receive or benefit from federal financial assistance. This is the import of the applicable regulation, upheld by the Court today, ante, at 574-575, which states that Title IX applies “to every recipient and to each education program or activity operated by such recipient which receives or benefits from Federal financial assistance.” 34 CFR §106.11 (1983). The Court overlooks the fact that the regulation is in the disjunctive; Title IX coverage does not always depend on the actual receipt of federal financial assistance by a given program or activity. The record does not tell us how important the BEOG pro*581gram is to Grove City, in either absolute or relative terms; nor does it tell us anything about how the benefits of the program are allocated within the institution. The Court decides that a small scholarship for just one student should not subject the entire school to coverage. Ante, at 572-573. But why should this case be judged on the basis of that hypothetical example instead of a different one? What if the record showed — and I do not suggest that it does — that all of the BEOG money was reserved for, or merely happened to be used by, talented athletes and that their tuition payments were sufficient to support an entire athletic program that would otherwise be abandoned? Would such a hypothetical program be covered by Title IX?* And if this athletic program discriminated on the basis of sex, could it plausibly be contended that Congress intended that BEOG money could be used to enable such a program to survive? Until we know something about the character of the particular program, it is inappropriate to give advice about an issue that is not before us.
Accordingly, while I subscribe to the reasoning in Parts I, II, IV, and V of the Court’s opinion, I am unable to join Part III.

 Yearly tuition for 1983 for fees, room, and board was $4,270. Brief for Petitioners 3, n. 2.

 Grove City College v. Harris, 500 F. Supp. 253, 259 (WD Pa. 1980).

 Ibid.

 These findings of the Administrative Law Judge have not been questioned.

Indeed, if we are to speculate about hypothetical cases, why not consider a school comparable to the private institutions discussed in Blum v. Yaretsky, 457 U. S. 991 (1982), in which over 90% of the patients received funds from public sources? See id., at 1011. It is at least theoretically possible that an educational institution might be financed entirely by tuition, and that virtually all of the students at an institution could receive a federal subsidy. Again, I do not suggest that Grove City College is such an institution, but I do suggest that it is improper for the Court to decide a legal issue on the basis of hypothetical examples that are selected to support a particular result.