Legal counsel advises against private-public playoff separation

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Two weeks from a scheduled vote on a proposal that would authorize the Southern Section to create separate playoff divisions for public and private schools, lawyers for the California Interscholastic Federation have issued a legal opinion that there is “no rational basis” for approving the measure, according to Jim Staunton, commissioner of the Southern Section.

The legal opinion by Diane Marshall-Freeman, general counsel for the CIF, the state’s governing body for high school athletics, is based on information provided by the Southern Section, including statistics on championships won over the last 10 years.

“Courts will look at whether or not the section has made a decision with a rational basis, and their [CIF general counsel’s] analysis of what we told them was we haven’t established a rational basis for doing this particular solution for the problems it presents,” Staunton said.

The proposal, submitted by the Century League and set for a vote on April 24, is designed to address growing concerns from public schools of an “uneven playing field” enjoyed by private schools.

The proposal, if approved, would not take effect until the 2010-11 school year. Staunton declined to release Marshall-Freeman’s full legal opinion, saying he wants to present it to the Southern Section Executive Committee, which meets on April 16 and will recommend to league representatives whether to support or reject the proposal.

According to Staunton, the lawyers state: ‘This office strongly urges that the proposal be rejected.’

The opinion by CIF lawyers could help private schools if they were to go to court and challenge the proposal.

One concern raised by the lawyers is that the proposal might violate CIF bylaw 11f, which states that the purpose of the CIF is to “promote equal opportunities for all of the youth in California secondary school athletic programs regardless of race, religion, sex, national origin or sexual orientation.”

-- Eric Sondheimer