Tuesday, February 10, 2009

Update on Indiana Baseball

The Indiana High School Athletic Association (IHSAA) passed an emergency ruling allowing girls to try out for high school baseball teams, even if their schools offer softball. Public Justice, a public interest law firm, gets tremendous credit for filing a complaint that prompted the rule change.

As we've blogged previously, the old rule precluded Indiana high school girls from trying out for baseball if softball was available at their schools. If an individual student had threatened a lawsuit, the IHSAA often granted waivers to them, but did not change the overall rule. It looks like the Public Interest lawsuit likely caused the IHSAA to reconsider their rule and open up opportunities to all girls, whether they were planning to litigate or not.