Author: Nicole Regis

Ivy League Faces Federal Class Action Lawsuit over refusal to award athletic scholarships

Published by and

In the ever-evolving landscape of college sports, one tenet remains the same: the Ivy League’s refusal to award athletic scholarships. However, they may be forced to forgo tradition pending the outcome of a lawsuit filed by current and former student athletes at Brown University. A class-action lawsuit filed March 2023 claimed eight Ivy League universities unlawfully colluded to reduce financial aid and compensation for student-athletes. Grace Kirk ‘24, a current student-athlete on Brown’s women’s basketball team, and Tamenang Choh ‘21, a former member of Brown’s men’s basketball team, filed the lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Connecticut on March 7. Both Plaintiffs turned down athletic scholarships at non-Ivy League schools and claim that the Ivy League schools colluded to “refuse to provide any athletic scholarships or other compensation/reimbursement for athletic services.” The Plaintiffs’ claims are based on the pivotal NCAA v. Alston decision handed down in 2021, in which the Supreme Court ruled that the NCAA’s restriction on education-related compensation was a violation of antitrust law. The decision led to the NCAA instituting the Name, …

Coping (through Humor) with October Term 2022, U.S. Supreme Court

Published by and

Whether you agree or disagree with the decisions handed down during the U.S. Supreme Court’s term ending just this June, you must agree that the term was quite a doozy. Affirmative Action out the window, student loans assistance down the drain, important LGBTQIA+ protections up in smoke. Those who are enraged or deeply disappointed by the decisions turned to a tried-and-true way to express their sentiments: humor. One of the wonders of humor is that it comes in so many varieties and adapts to such a broad array of media. Here’s just a few examples. Starting first at the nerve center of the Court itself, the dissenting opinions from the term had quite a few zingers: “With let-them-eat-cake obliviousness, today, the majority pulls the ripcord and announces ‘colorblindness for all’ by legal fiat, But deeming race irrelevant in law does not make it so in life.” “The best that can be said of the majority’s perspective is that it proceeds (ostrich-like) from the hope that preventing consideration of race will end racism.” Justice Ketanji Brown …