A Win for Title IX

August 5, 2011 -

The United States District Court for the Eastern District of California recently issued a decision in Arezou Mansourian et al. v. Board of Regents of the University of California at Davis finding that UC Davis had violated Title IX, the law that requires gender equity in federally-funded educational programs, by failing to demonstrate a continuing practice of female student-athlete program expansion.

Plaintiffs Arezou Mansourian, Christine Ng, and Lauren Mancuso, students at UC Davis when the action was filed, claimed that the school denied them the opportunity to join the varsity wrestling team. They attempted to join the team at a time when the school had eliminated more than 60 opportunities for women students to participate in campus sports.

The plaintiffs appealed to the Ninth Circuit Court after the Eastern District of California dismissed the case in 2008. Several women’s rights organizations including Legal Momentum filed an amicus curiae brief in favor of the plaintiffs when the case went before the Ninth Circuit Court in 2009. The brief argued that UC Davis had consistently failed to comply with Title IX since the law’s enactment in 1972 and that the Eastern District had misunderstood and misapplied a particular legal standard that led to the case’s inappropriate dismissal. The Circuit Court ultimately agreed and reinstated the case later that year.

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Learn more about Legal Momentum's work on Title IX.