American Civil Liberties Union

Imagine if you had agreed to host Thanksgiving dinner — but your relatives weren’t allowed to come to your house, or anywhere near it. This is the situation faced by many families living in public housing, including the plaintiffs in an ACLU and ACLU of Maryland lawsuit who challenged the Housing Authority of the City of Annapolis’s (HACA) policy of “banning” people it deems undesirable. Under the policy, anyone the housing authority designated as "detrimental to the overall quality of life for public housing residents" could be banned from HACA property for three years to life, with little to no recourse for being removed from the list.

Before 1972, there was little protection for women and girls against sex discrimination in education. Today, we celebrate the 38th Anniversary of Title IX, recognizing advances that have been made, as well as the work that remains to be done.

Title IX states:

No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance.

The statute has opened up equal opportunities for countless women and girls in education, in such diverse realms as equal athletic opportunity and protection of students from sexual harassment by faculty and peers.

Yesterday the Supreme Court handed down a unanimous ruling with important implications for civil rights. The court held, by a vote of 9 - 0, that a plaintiff who brings a sex discrimination claim under Title IX — the federal law banning sex discrimination in education — also has the right to bring claims under the Equal Protection Clause of the Constitution. This is a critical point because, in the court’s words, “Title IX’s protections are narrower in some respects and broader in others than those guaranteed under the Equal Protection Clause.”