TSSAA v. Brentwood Academy

Team:

Megan Cunningham
Margaret Kurtz

Information on the Complaint from the Case File available:
In the original complaint filed on December 12th, 1997, Brentwood Academy, a private parochial high school member of Tennessee Secondary School Athletic Association (TSSAA), sued the association alleging that TSSAA’s conduct in enforcing its rule prohibiting member schools from contacting prospective student-athletes prior to their enrollment, known as the “Recruiting Rule”, violated the First and the Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution. The complaint also claimed antitrust violations under Sections 1 and 2 of the Sherman Antitrust Act, based on TSSAA’s allegedly anti competitive conduct in imposing sanctions upon Brentwood Academy – including barring the school from competing for a state championship for two years – for purported violations of the Recruiting Rule. The complaint alleged, among other things, that these sanctions materially hindered Brentwood Academy’s ability to compete for students and to compete in interscholastic athletics with other member schools.

The names of the litigants:
Brentwood Academy and Tennessee Secondary School Athletic Association

The date the lawsuit was filed:
12/12/1997

The court in which the lawsuit was filed:
Middle District of Tennessee (Nashville), US District Court
The present status of the case: Currently closed after being Reversed in Appellate Court and Remanded in the US Supreme Court, ruling in favor of Brentwood Academy.

A concise statement of the issue or issues in dispute:
In 1997, the TSSAA investigated rumors that Brentwood Academy, a highly athletic school with many state football championships, was violating their recruiting rule and recruiting public school students for athletic purposes. While this was found untrue, they instead found that Brentwood's football coach had been recruiting 8th graders to the academy to play, which was also against the association's rules. Because of this the TSSAA fined the school $3,000 and placed them on athletic probation which prohibited them from participant in championship games for 2 years. Brentwood sued the TSSAA saying that this was against 1st and 14th amendment rights. This violated their right to due process because the validity of this case had never been tried in court. They also claimed that this violated the Sherman Anti-Trust Act and the right to free speech because it limited the way in which the academy chose to recruit and subsequently was anti-competitive.

What the plaintiff is asking the court for:
To be able to recruit however they'd like because the TSSAA is a state association and thus must abide under the rules of the US constitution, the have probation lifted, and to have fines waived.