Brentwood Academy v. Tennessee Secondary School Athletic Associat ion

[Blumstein, James]

The Supreme Court granted cert. today in the Brentwood Academy case.  The
issue for the court is whether a nominally private high school athletic
association composed largely (84%) of public schools and run by public
school principals acts under color of state law in its regulatory capacity
over interscholastic athletics.  The context is a decision by TSSAA to
suspend Brentwood Academy for alleged violations of the TSSAA's recruiting
rule.  Brentwood Academy is a private religiously oriented high school (and,
for the sake of disclosure, I wrote the briefs in the lower courts and the
cert. petition in the Supreme Court).
        The district court held that TSSAA's regulatory conduct constituted
state action and that the recruiting rule violated free expression
guarantees of the First Amendment.  The Sixth Circuit reversed on the state
action issue and did not reach the First Amendment issue.  The issue before
the Supreme Court will be the state action question.  The Sixth Circuit
decision stands alone on this issue, with the Courts of Appeals for the
Third, Fifth, Seventh, Eighth, Ninth, and Tenth Circuits holding that the
regulatory conduct of these associations is state action.  The key case will
be Tarkanian and especially footnote 13 in Tarkanian, which addressed the
issue in the context of holding NCAA not to be a state actor....
        I invite words of help, encouragement, analytical leads, etc.... The
case is set for October Term 2000.

                                                   Jim Blumstein

James F. Blumstein
Centennial Professor of Law
Vanderbilt Law School
131 21st Avenue South
Nashville, TN 37203
Telephone : (615) 322-2613
Fax: (615) 322-6631

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