TENNESSEE SECONDARY SCHOOL ATHLETIC ASSOCIATION v. BRENTWOOD ACADEMY

Legal Principle at Issue

Whether private prep schools have a constitutional right to talk to prospective student athletes to "recruit" them, when that violates a no-recruiting rule those schools have voluntarily agreed to obey as members of a state sport competition organization.

Action

Reversed and remanded. Petitioning party received a favorable disposition.

Facts/Syllabus

Petitioner Tennessee Secondary School Athletic Association regulates interscholastic sports among its members of Tennessee public and private high schools. TSSAA sanctioned respondent Brentwood Academy, a private school, because its football coach sent eighth-grade boys a letter that violated the association's rule prohibiting members from using “undue influence” in recruiting middle school students for their athletic programs. 

Following internal review, Brentwood sued TSSAA and its executive director, claiming that enforcement of the anti-recruiting rule was state action violative of the First and Fourteenth Amendments and that association's flawed adjudication of its appeal deprived Brentwood of due process. The District Court granted Brentwood relief, but the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit reversed, holding that TSSAA was a private voluntary association that did not act under color of state law. The Supreme Court reversed that determination, Brentwood Academy v. Tennessee Secondary School Athletic Association (2001), and the District Court again ruled for Brentwood on remand. The Sixth Circuit affirmed, holding that the antirecruiting rule is a content-based regulation of speech that is not narrowly tailored to serve its permissible purposes and that the TSSAA board improperly considered ex parte evidence, thereby violating Brentwood’s due process rights.