Happy 36th Anniversary, Title IX

36 years ago today, President Nixon signed the Education Amendments of 1972 into law. Its most famous provision, Title IX, prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex by educational institutions that receive federal funds.

Unfortunately, pointing out the age of Title IX runs the risk of feeding the misconception that the statute has been around for more than enough time to eradicate sex discrimination in curricular and extracurricular aspects of education -- a belief that underscores arguments that its time to "retire" Title IX. So while commemorating Title IX on its anniversary, I want to also point also out that despite the statute's 36 years, Title IX enforcement -- especially in the context of athletics -- is not nearly so old. Opponents tied up the enforcement regulations governing athletics with political and judicial battles throughout the 1970s and 80s, and even succeeded in getting the Supreme Court to hold the statute inapplicable to programs, like athletics, that don't directly receive federal funds. Even though Congress amended the legislation several years later to restore Title IX's applicability to athletics, the Reagan and Bush administrations weren't exactly enthusiastic about enforcing Title IX's mandate. In fact, it wasn't really until the Supreme Court held in 1992 that plaintiffs could sue institutions under Title IX for money damages that they began taking compliance seriously. Judicial confirmation that Title IX's private right of action extends to sexual harassment by one's peers, and retaliation against third parties, is an even more recent development.

So Happy 36th Anniversary to Title IX...
...And Happy 20th Anniversary to the Civil Rights Restoration Act of 1987 (Mar. 22, 1988)... And Happy 16th Anniversary to Franklin v. Gwinnett County Public Schools (Feb. 26, 1992)...And Happy 9th Anniversary to Davis v. Monroe County Board of Education (May 24, 1999)...And Happy 3rd Anniversary to Jackson v. Birmingham Board of Education (March 29, 2005)...