Court Opinion

ID: 9490497
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 13:45:06.058232+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:54:07.917154
License: Public Domain

MERRITT, Circuit Judge,
dissenting.
I concur fully in Judge Moore’s dissenting opinion. I write to point out that the Court has made no ruling that the MHSAA may now lawfully penalize the Ann Arbor school system for allowing McPherson to play basketball pursuant to a mandatory federal court order then valid on its face. Should the MHSAA seek in the future to forfeit games or take other punitive action against the school for conduct ordered by the federal court in its injunctive order, the court below can then determine whether such punitive measures are valid. Our Court has left to another day the question of the authority of the MHSAA to punish a school for obeying a mandatory injunction.
In this ease, the school district simply complied with the Supreme Court’s longstanding rule that “[a]n injunction issued by a court acting within its jurisdiction must be obeyed until the injunction is vacated or withdrawn.” W.C. Grace and Co. v. Local Union 759, Int’l Union of the United Rubber, Cork, Linoleum and Plastic Workers of America, 461 U.S. 757, 766, 103 S.Ct. 2177, 2183-84, 76 L.Ed.2d 298 (1983) (citing Walker v. City of Birmingham, 388 U.S. 307, 313-14, 87 S.Ct. 1824, 1828, 18 L.Ed.2d 1210 (1967)). If the MHSAA is permitted to retaliate against the school district for its compliance with a district court injunction, then the power of district courts to issue injunctions will be undermined. See Crocker v. Tennessee Secondary Sch. Athletic Ass’n, 1990 WL 104036 (6th Cir. July 25, 1990) (unpublished) (“It would be unfair to penalize McGavock High School for actions that it took in compliance with a District Court order during the pendency of that order.”); Crandall v. North Dakota High Sch. Activities Ass’n, 261 N.W.2d 921, 927 (1978) (“It would be unjust to penalize or sanction the high school for complying with a court order.”); Indiana High Sch. Athletic Ass’n, Inc. v. Avant, 650 N.E.2d 1164, 1171 (Ind.App. 3 Dist.1995) (“It would be illogical and manifestly unreasonable to exact penalties upon individuals and schools as punishment or retribution for the actions in complying with a court order.”) The contrary view of the Supreme Court of Michigan is unpersuasive. See Cardinal Mooney High School v. MHSAA, 437 Mich. 75, 467 N.W.2d 21 (1991).