Legal Momentum and Morrison Foerster led an amicus brief, which several other organizations joined, filed December 8, 2020. The case involves a female student athlete who was removed from the soccer team and stripped of her scholarship after briefly flashing her middle finger in view of an ESPN camera after winning an important game. Despite evidence of numerous male student athlete comparators who received far less punishment, if punishment at all, for equal or more serious conduct, the District Court ruled in favor of the University on summary judgment.

Our brief addressed the gender-based stereotypes that impact the treatment of female student athletes as compared to male student athletes, the fewer elite level athletic and athletic scholarship opportunities for female athletes and the impossibility of applying a standard such as that set out by the District Court’s ruling.