Supreme Court weighs Title IX scope

The U.S. Supreme Court agreed on May 18 to hear a case that will decide whether employees at federally funded schools and universities can sue under Title IX for sex discrimination. The appeal comes from former Georgia Tech women’s basketball coach MaChelle Joseph and former Augusta University art professor Thomas Crowther, whose cases were consolidated in the lower courts. The justices will review an Eleventh Circuit ruling from November 2024 that said Title IX does not provide employees with a private right of action for sex-discrimination claims in employment. ### What exactly are the justices being asked to decide? The question presented to the court is whether Title IX provides employees of federally funded educational institutions a private right of action to sue for sex discrimination in employment. That framing appears in the joint petition filed by Joseph and Crowther after the Eleventh Circuit ruled against them. Title IX bars sex discrimination in federally funded education programs, and the Supreme Court has previously recognized implied private suits under the law in other contexts. (supremecourt.gov) The Eleventh Circuit said in its November 7, 2024 decision that Title IX does not include that implied cause of action for employees bringing sex-discrimination claims about their jobs. The ruling left intact employee retaliation claims only in narrower circumstances already recognized by prior Supreme Court precedent, including Jackson v. Birmingham Board of Education. (supremecourt.gov) ### How did MaChelle Joseph’s case reach the Supreme Court? MaChelle Joseph, who coached Georgia Tech’s women’s basketball team from 2003 until 2019, alleged that Georgia Tech gave the women’s program fewer resources than the men’s team and retaliated against her after she raised those concerns. Thomas Crowther, a former Augusta University professor, separately alleged sex discrimination and retaliation. (law.justia.com) Their appeals were consolidated in the Eleventh Circuit. The Eleventh Circuit affirmed dismissal of Joseph’s Title IX claims and reversed a lower-court ruling that had allowed Crowther’s Title IX claims to proceed. Joseph and Crowther then filed a joint petition asking the Supreme Court to resolve what they described as a conflict among federal appeals courts. (supremecourt.gov) ### Why is this case bigger than one Georgia dispute? The petition says the Eleventh Circuit’s ruling split with eight other federal appeals courts that had allowed employee Title IX sex-discrimination suits, while aligning with older Fifth and Seventh Circuit precedent. SCOTUSblog also described the dispute as a circuit split over whether employees can bring these claims. That division is one reason the Supreme Court often takes a case. (law.justia.com) The U.S. government also urged the justices to hear the case. In an April 9 brief, the Justice Department told the court that Title IX does not provide employees of federally funded educational institutions a private right of action to sue for sex discrimination in employment, even as it agreed the court should take the case to resolve the question. (supremecourt.gov) ### Why does the overlap with Title VII matter? Title VII is the main federal law that bars employment discrimination, and it contains a detailed enforcement scheme for workplace claims. The dispute in Crowther and Joseph turns in part on whether employees at schools can also use Title IX, which applies to federally funded education programs, instead of or alongside Title VII. Georgia’s board of regents argued that courts should not expand a judge-made Title IX cause of action where Congress created a separate employment-discrimination framework in Title VII. (supremecourt.gov) Joseph and Crowther argued the two laws can coexist and that reading Title IX more narrowly would leave some employees worse off, particularly in public education settings. That argument is reflected in filings and in accounts of the case published after the grant. ### What happens next in the case? (supremecourt.gov) The case is docketed as Crowther v. Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia, No. 25-183. The Supreme Court’s grant places it on the court’s next merits docket, with argument expected in the October 2026 term. The next public milestones will be merits briefing and, later, oral argument in Washington. (aol.com) The court’s eventual ruling will determine whether Joseph, Crowther and other employees at federally funded schools may pursue sex-discrimination claims under Title IX. (scotusblog.com)