Sports policies, laws, and state actors: What’s the difference?

Although both organizational policies and laws can both establish rules and regulations, there are some key differences between the two.

Laws are established by the local, state, or federal government, while sports policies are established by governing bodies, leagues, or teams. There are also different types of laws, which have different functions and scopes. Constitutional laws, for instance, are mostly applicable to institutions known as state actors (people, groups, institutions acting on behalf of the government), including public K-12 and secondary education schools. Therefore, professional or private sport governing bodies would not necessarily be subject to constitutional law. However, private organizations are held to various other areas of law, including employment law, anti-trust laws, and agency laws. 

Note: most courts have found high school state athletic associations to be state actors, but the NCAA has been ruled as not a state actor. So, even though a public, state university competing within the NCAA would be required to uphold constitutional laws, including the Equal Protection Clause), the NCAA itself is not required to do so. The right for transgender people to participate on teams and in competitions that align with their gender identity is associated with various legal challenges surrounding constitutional law (specifically equal protection) and antidiscrimination laws (such as Title VII of the Civil Rights Act and Title VII of the Education Amendments of 1972). States such as California and Connecticut have passed laws that prohibit discrimination based on gender identity and mandate access to areas typically restricted by sex. The first state to pass legislation restricting participation in interscholastic sports to be based on sex assigned at birth (biological sex) was Idaho; in 2020, Idaho’s “Fairness in Women’s Sports Act” was passed, citing the promotion of “sex equality”.

Written by JD Dumbrowsky.