Court Opinion

ID: 9409302
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-07-17 18:01:03.016375+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:20:49.820236
License: Public Domain

NOT FOR PUBLICATION                           FILED
                    UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS                        JUL 17 2023
                                                                      MOLLY C. DWYER, CLERK
                                                                       U.S. COURT OF APPEALS
                           FOR THE NINTH CIRCUIT

D. M., by and through his next friend C.M.,     No.    22-36029

                Plaintiff-Appellant,            D.C. No. 6:22-cv-01228-MC

 v.
                                                MEMORANDUM*
OREGON SCHOOL ACTIVITIES
ASSOCIATION, an Oregon Corporation, by
and through the Board of Directors of
Oregon School Activities Association;
OREGON SCHOLASTIC ACTIVITIES
ASSOCIATION, an Oregon Corporation, by
and through the Board of Directors of
Oregon Scholastic Activities Association,

                Defendants-Appellees.

                   Appeal from the United States District Court
                             for the District of Oregon
                   Michael J. McShane, District Judge, Presiding

                             Submitted July 12, 2023**
                               Seattle, Washington

Before: GRABER, GOULD, and FRIEDLAND, Circuit Judges.

      *
             This disposition is not appropriate for publication and is not precedent
except as provided by Ninth Circuit Rule 36-3.
      **
             The panel unanimously concludes this case is suitable for decision
without oral argument. See Fed. R. App. P. 34(a)(2).
      Plaintiff D.M. appeals the district court’s denial of his request for a

preliminary injunction to prohibit the Oregon School Activities Association

(OSAA) from applying its eight-consecutive-semester rule to bar him from playing

school sports in his last year of high school. Because D.M. has now graduated

from high school, his appeal is moot. We therefore dismiss.

      D.M. concedes that “the controversy on appeal [is] dormant between the

parties as of” the date of his graduation from high school, but he argues that the

“capable of repetition, yet evading review” exception to mootness applies here.

The controversy, however, must be capable of repetition with respect to the

particular appellant in question for that exception to apply. See, e.g., DeFunis v.

Odegaard, 416 U.S. 312, 319 (1974) (per curiam) (holding that the plaintiff’s

challenge to a specific law school admission process was moot and not capable of

repetition because he was already enrolled for the final term of his final year of law

school and would never be subject to that admissions process again). Because the

controversy with respect to Appellant D.M.—whether OSAA violated the ADA by

applying its eight-consecutive-semester rule to bar D.M. from playing sports in his

final year of high school—cannot repeat now that D.M. is no longer a high school

student, the mootness exception cannot apply here.1 Cf. Where Do We Go

      1
        The fact that OSAA’s eight-consecutive-semester rule may also bar other
students from playing sports does not make a difference here because D.M. is

                                          2                                     22-36029
Berkeley v. Cal. Dep’t of Transp., 32 F.4th 852, 857–59 (9th Cir. 2022) (holding

that, although the preliminary injunction being appealed had been set to expire

before argument, the controversy was “capable of repetition” because the plaintiffs

had extended the injunction and could continue to do so and also because the harm

with respect to appellant Caltrans—its being enjoined from clearing the

encampments—was likely to repeat).

      DISMISSED.

bringing a claim only on his own behalf, based on his own particular disability. In
DeFunis, the school’s allegedly unconstitutional admission process would have
affected future applicants. 416 U.S. at 319. But because DeFunis brought the
claim only on behalf of “himself alone, and not as the representative of any class,”
id. at 314, the claim was moot when DeFunis would no longer be subject to the
policy, id. at 319.

                                         3                                    22-36029