“In all its iterations over the last 33 years it has been maintained, IHSAA’s minority quota has operated a n express, discriminatory racial classification,” the lawsuit alleges. “It categorizes all individuals into two groups—those who are ‘white’ and those who are not—for the sole purpose of allocating seats on IHSAA’s governing Board. It excludes white males and white females from eligibility for the reserved minority seats solely because of their race.”
Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita is suing the Indiana High School Athletic Association in an effort to eliminate a race-based quota for the organization’s board of directors.
According to The Indiana Capital Chronicle, the lawsuit was filed Wednesday in Marion County Superior Court. In it, Rokita’s office claims that the IHSAA engages in racial discrimination by reserving two of its 19 directorial positions for minorities.
The IHSAA’s bylaws, Rokita says, reserves two seats for “qualified minorities,” defined as any “individual other than a white male or female.”
“This is an overt racial classification that treats individuals differently solely based on race for the purpose of allocating positions of institutional authority,” the lawsuit alleges.
The Capital Chronicle notes that the IHSAA has had bylaws allocating seats for minority members since 1993. One earlier version reserved the seats for “an individual other than a white male,” while another rendition saved them for “urban school representatives.”
“In all its iterations over the last 33 years it has been maintained, IHSAA’s minority quota has operated a n express, discriminatory racial classification,” the lawsuit alleges. “It categorizes all individuals into two groups—those who are ‘white’ and those who are not—for the sole purpose of allocating seats on IHSAA’s governing Board. It excludes white males and white females from eligibility for the reserved minority seats solely because of their race.”
In response, the IHSAA said that it “is disappointed that litigation was filed despite our willingness to consider the Attorney General’s concerns through our established governance and bylaw review process.”
“Our purpose is to ensure [that] high school student-athletes can experience rewarding opportunities on the field or court, develop meaningful and fulfilling relationships with coaches and teammates—all without superseding academics as each student-athlete’s ultimate priority,” the organization said. “The IHSAA disagrees with any suggestion that our bylaws violate federal and state civil rights laws or in any way constitute an abuse of its nonprofit status. To the contrary, the IHSAA is committed to serving all student-athletes and member schools throughout Indiana. Consistent with that mission, we value broad representation and diverse perspectives among those who help guide and support interscholastic athletics across the state. For more than a century, the IHSAA has governed high school athletics on behalf of its member schools. It is unfortunate that distractions like today’s lawsuit take away from what really matters: the student-athletes.”
