but the Supreme Court has extended its “zone of interests” jurisprudence to cases brought under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, 42 U.S.C. § 2000e et seq., whose anti-retaliation provisions are analogous here. See Thompson, 131 S. Ct. at 870. And students like Plaintiffs surely fall with the “zone of interests” that Title IX's implicit anti-retaliation provisions seek to protect. See Jackson, 544 U.S. at 173-77.
Finally, the Supreme Court has foreclosed Sweetwater’s position. Faced with the argument that anti-retaliation provisions limit standing to those “who engaged in the protected activity” and were “the subject of unlawful retaliation,” the Court has said that such a position is an “artificially narrow” reading with “no basis in text or prior practice.” Thompson, 131 S. Ct. at 869-70.[1] Rather, “any plaintiff with an interest arguably sought to be protected by” a statute with an anti-retaliation provision has standing to sue under that statute. Id. at 870 (alteration and internal quotation marks omitted). Students have “an interest arguably sought to be protected by” Title IX—indeed, students are the statute’s very focus.
Coach Martinez gave softball players extra practice time and individualized attention, persuaded volunteer coaches to help with specialized skills, and arranged for the team to play in tournaments attended by college recruiters. The softball team was stronger with Coach Martinez than without him. After Coach Martinez was fired, Sweetwater stripped the softball team of its voluntary assistant coaches, canceled the team’s 2007 awards banquet, and forbade the team from
- ↑ Thompson v. North American Stainless, LP was a Title VII case, but the Supreme Court’s reasoning applies with equal force to Title IX.
