Title IX and Retaliation

In 2005, the U.S. Supreme Court, in Jackson v. Birmingham Board of Education, rendered a sharply divided opinion in deciding that employees who report gender discrimination in violation of Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 and are retaliated against as a result of their complaints can seek redress for retaliation under Title IX. Title IX prohibits discrimination “on the basis of sex” by recipients of federal education funds. Although there is no specific reference to retaliation in the text of Title IX, Jackson extends the statute's protections against discrimination “on the basis of sex” to those retaliated against for reporting violations of its provisions regardless of their gender.

[Page 481]Until Jackson was resolved, lower federal courts had disagreed as to whether a private right ...