Jackson v.

Birmingham
Board of Education
125 S. Ct. 1497 (2005)
Facts
● Roderick Jackson, girls’ basketball coach discovered that his team was
not receiving equal funding and equal access to athletic equipment
and facilities, he complained unsuccessfully to his supervisors
● He then received negative work evaluations and ultimately was
removed as the girls’ coach
● Jackson filed a suit alleging the school board had retaliated against
him because he had complained about sex discrimination in the high
school’s athletic program, and that such retaliation violated Title IX of
the Education Amendments of 1972
● The lower courts and the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals dismissed
his complaint on the ground that Title IX does not provide a private right
of action for retaliation, despite the fact that all other circuits to
address the issue have held otherwise. The Supreme Court reversed.
Findings
￮ The Supreme Court held (5-4) that retaliation against people who
complain of sex discrimination is itself a form of intentional sex
discrimination prohibited by Title IX and that a private cause of action is
therefore available to redress the injury suffered.
￮ Justice Sandra Day O’Connor held that the Eleventh Circuit ignored the
Court’s prior holdings construing discrimination under Title IX broadly,
and that retaliation is an aspect of discrimination that does not need to
be explicitly mentioned in a general anti discrimination statute
￮ Title IX prohibits sex discrimination under any education program, to be
covered, the victim of the retaliation does not also have to be the victim
of the discrimination that is the subject of the original complaint.
Implications
● The Court recognized that “reporting incidents of discrimination is
integral to Title IX enforcement and would be discouraged if
retaliation against those who report went unpunished.”
● The impact of this decision, like others interpreting Title IX, extends
to analogous statutes prohibiting discrimination in federally
funded programs, such as Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964
(race, color, and national origin), Section 504 of the Rehabilitation
Act of 1973 (disability), and the Age Discrimination Act of 1975, as
well as to constitutional principles addressing discrimination and
the liability of educational and other institutions.