Resource: Cohen v. Brown

Brown University is taking its Title IX athletics case to the U.S. Supreme Court. Attorneys for the University filed a petition for a writ of certiorari late Tuesday, Feb. 18, 1997, asking the Supreme Court to review a split decision handed down Nov. 21, 1996, in Boston by a three-judge panel of the U.S. First Circuit Court of Appeals. The lower-court interpretation of Title IX would have required Brown to treat its male and female athletes differently in order to meet gender-based numerical quotas. Title IX, the 1972 federal education legislation, prohibits gender-based discrimination in all colleges and universities receiving federal funds.