Lead Opinion
delivered the opinion of the Court.
Roderick Jackson, a teacher in the Birmingham, Alabama, public schools, brought suit against the Birmingham Board of Education (Board) alleging that the Board retaliated against him because he had complained about sex discrimination in the high school’s athletic program. Jackson claimed that the Board’s retaliation violated Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, Pub. L. 92-318, 86 Stat. 373, as amended, 20 U. S. C. § 1681 et seq. The District Court dismissed Jackson’s complaint on the ground that Title IX does not prohibit retaliation, and the Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit affirmed.
I
Because Jackson’s Title IX claim was dismissed under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(6) for failure to state a claim upon which relief can be granted, “we must assume the truth of the material facts as alleged in the complaint.” Summit Health, Ltd. v. Pinhas,
According to the complaint, Jackson has been an employee of the Birmingham school district for over 10 years. In 1993, the Board hired Jackson to serve as a physical education teacher and girls’ basketball coach. Jackson was transferred to Ensley High School in August 1999. At Ensley, he discovered that the girls’ team was not receiving equal funding and equal access to athletic equipment and facilities. The lack of adequate funding, equipment, and facilities made it difficult for Jackson to do his job as the team’s coach.
In December 2000, Jackson began complaining to his supervisors about the unequal treatment of the girls’ basketball team, but to no avail. Jackson’s complaints went unanswered, and the school failed to remedy the situation. In
After the Board terminated Jackson’s coaching duties, he filed suit in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Alabama. He alleged, among other things, that the Board violated Title IX by retaliating against him for protesting the discrimination against the girls’ basketball team. Amended Complaint 2-3, App. 10-11. The Board moved to dismiss on the ground that Title IX’s private cause of action does not include claims of retaliation. The District Court granted the motion to dismiss.
The Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit affirmed.
We granted certiorari,
II
A
Title IX prohibits sex discrimination by recipients of federal education funding. The statute provides that “[n]o 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.” 20 U. S. C. § 1681(a). More than 25 years ago, in Cannon v. University of Chicago,
In all of these cases, we relied on the text of Title IX, which, subject to a list of narrow exceptions not at issue here, broadly prohibits a funding recipient from subjecting any person to “discrimination” “on the basis of sex.” 20 U. S. C. § 1681. Retaliation against a person because that person has complained of sex discrimination is another form of intentional sex discrimination encompassed by Title IX’s private cause of action. Retaliation is, by definition, an in
The Court of Appeals’ conclusion that Title IX does not prohibit retaliation because the “statute makes no mention of retaliation,”
Congress certainly could have mentioned retaliation in Title IX expressly, as it did in § 704 of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, 78 Stat. 257, as amended, 86 Stat. 109, 42 U. S. C. § 2000e-3(a) (providing that it is an “unlawful employment practice” for an employer to retaliate against an employee because he has “opposed any practice made an unlawful employment practice by [Title VII], or because he has made a charge, testified, assisted, or participated in any manner in an investigation, proceeding, or hearing under [Title VII]”). Title VII, however, is a vastly different statute from Title IX, see Gebser,
Congress enacted Title IX just three years after Sullivan was decided, and accordingly that decision provides a valuable context for understanding the statute. As we recognized in Cannon, “it is not only appropriate but also realistic to presume that Congress was thoroughly familiar with [Sullivan] and that it expected its enactment [of Title IX] to be interpreted in conformity with [it].”
B
The Board contends that our decision in Alexander v. Sandoval,
The Board cites a Department of Education regulation prohibiting retaliation “against any individual for the purpose of interfering with any right or privilege secured by [Title IX],” 34 CFR § 100.7(e) (2004) (incorporated by reference by § 106.71), and contends that Jackson, like the petitioners in Sandoval, seeks an “impermissible extension of the statute” when he argues that Title IX’s private right of action encompasses retaliation. Brief for Respondent 45. This argument, however, entirely misses the point. We do not rely on regulations extending Title IX’s protection beyond its statutory limits; indeed, we do not rely on the Department of Education’s regulation at all, because the statute itself contains the necessary prohibition. As we explain above, see supra, at 174-175, the text of Title IX prohibits a funding recipient from retaliating against a person who speaks out against sex discrimination, because such retaliation is intentional “discrimination” “on the basis of sex.” We reach this result based on the statute’s text. In step with Sandoval, we hold that Title IX’s private right of action encompasses suits for retaliation, because retaliation falls within the statute’s prohibition of intentional discrimination on the basis of sex.
Nor are we convinced by the Board’s argument that, even if Title IX’s private right of action encompasses discrimination, Jackson is not entitled to invoke it because he is an “indirect victi[m]” of sex discrimination. Brief for Respondent 33. The statute is broadly worded; it does not require that the victim of the retaliation must also be the victim of the discrimination that is the subject of the original complaint. If the statute provided instead that “no person shall be subjected to discrimination on the basis of such individual’s sex,” then we would agree with the Board. Cf. 42 U. S. C. § 2000e-2(a)(l) (“It shall be an unlawful employment practice for an employer ... to discriminate against any individual . . . because of such individual’s race, color, religion, sex, or national origin” (emphasis added)). However, Title IX contains no such limitation. Where the retaliation occurs because the complainant speaks out about sex discrimination, the “on the basis of sex” requirement is satisfied. The complainant is himself a victim of discriminatory retaliation, regardless of whether he was the subject of the original complaint.
Congress enacted Title IX not only to prevent the use of federal dollars to support discriminatory practices, but also “to provide individual citizens effective protection against those practices.” Cannon,
Reporting incidents of discrimination is integral to Title IX enforcement and would be discouraged if retaliation against those who report went unpunished. Indeed, if retaliation were not prohibited, Title IX’s enforcement scheme would unravel. Recall that Congress intended Title IX’s private right of action to encompass claims of a recipient’s deliberate indifference to sexual harassment. See generally Davis,
Title IX’s enforcement scheme also depends on individual reporting because individuals and agencies may not bring suit under the statute unless the recipient has received “actual notice” of the discrimination. Id., at 288,289-290 (holding that an appropriate official of the funding recipient must have actual knowledge of discrimination and respond with deliberate indifference before a private party may bring suit); 20 U. S. C. § 1682 (providing that a federal agency may terminate funding only after it “has advised the appropriate person or persons of the failure to comply with the requirement and has determined that compliance cannot be secured by voluntary means”). If recipients were able to avoid such notice by retaliating against all those who dare complain, the statute’s enforcement scheme would be subverted. We should not assume that Congress left such a gap in its scheme.
Moreover, teachers and coaches such as Jackson are often in the best position to vindicate the rights of their students because they are better able to identify discrimination and bring it to the attention of administrators. Indeed, sometimes adult employees are “The only effective adversaries]’” of discrimination in schools. See Sullivan, supra, at 237 (“[A] white owner is at times ‘the only effective adversary’ of the unlawful restrictive covenant” (citing Barrows v. Jackson,
D
The Board is correct in pointing out that, because Title IX was enacted as an exercise of Congress’ powers under the Spending Clause, see, e.g., Davis, supra, at 640; Gebser, supra, at 287; Franklin,
The Board insists that we should not interpret Title IX to prohibit retaliation because it was not on notice that it could be held liable for retaliating against those who complain of Title IX violations. We disagree. Funding recipients have been on notice that they could be subjected to private suits for intentional sex discrimination under Title IX since 1979, when we decided Cannon. Pennhurst does not preclude private suits for intentional acts that clearly violate Title IX. Davis, supra, at 642.
Indeed, in Davis, we held that Pennhurst did not pose an obstacle to private suits for damages in cases of a recipient’s deliberate indifference to one student’s sexual harassment of another, because the deliberate indifference constituted intentional discrimination on the basis of sex. Davis, supra, at 650. See also Franklin, supra, at 75 (“Congress surely did not intend for federal moneys to be expended to support the intentional actions it sought by statute to proscribe”). Similarly, we held in Gebser that a recipient of federal funding could be held liable for damages under Title IX for deliberate indifference to a teacher’s harassment of a student.
Thus, the Board should have been put on notice by the fact that our cases since Cannon, such as Gebser and Davis, have consistently interpreted Title IX’s private cause of action broadly to encompass diverse forms of intentional sex discrimination. Indeed, retaliation presents an even easier case than deliberate indifference. It is easily attributable to the funding recipient, and it is always — by definition— intentional. We therefore conclude that retaliation against individuals because they complain of sex discrimination is “intentional conduct that violates the clear terms of the statute,” Davis,
The regulations implementing Title IX clearly prohibit retaliation and have been on the books for nearly 30 years. Cf., e.g., id., at 643 (holding that Title IX’s regulatory scheme “has long provided funding recipients with notice that they may be liable for their failure to respond to the discriminatory acts of certain nonagents”). More importantly, the Courts of Appeals that had considered the question at the time of the conduct at issue in this case all had already interpreted Title IX to cover retaliation. See, e. g., Lowrey,
To prevail on the merits, Jackson will have to prove that the Board retaliated against him because he complained of sex discrimination. The amended complaint alleges that the Board retaliated against Jackson for complaining to his supervisor, Ms. Evelyn Baugh, about sex discrimination at Ens-ley High School. At this stage of the proceedings, “[t]he issue is not whether a plaintiff will ultimately prevail but whether the claimant is entitled to offer evidence to support the claims.” Scheuer v. Rhodes,
It is so ordered.
Notes
Justice Thomas contends that Sullivan merely decided that the white owner had standing to assert the rights of the black lessee. Post, at 194 (dissenting opinion). But Sullivan’s holding was not so limited. It plainly held that the white owner could maintain his own private cause of action under § 1982 if he could show that he was “punished for trying to vindicate the rights of minorities.”
We agree with Justice Thomas that plaintiffs may not assert claims under Title IX for conduct not prohibited by that statute. Post, at 193 (dissenting opinion). See also Central Bank of Denver, N. A. v. First Interstate Bank of Denver, N. A.,
Justice Thomas contends that “extending the implied cause of action under Title IX to claims of retaliation expands the class of people the statute protects beyond the specified beneficiaries.” Post, at 194 (dissenting opinion). But Title IX’s beneficiaries plainly include all those who are subjected to “discrimination” “on the basis of sex.” 20 U. S. C. § 1681(a). Because, as we explain above, see supra, at 174-175, retaliation in response to a complaint about sex discrimination is “discrimination” “on the basis of sex,” the statute clearly protects those who suffer such retaliation. The following hypothetical, offered by petitioner at oral argument, illustrates this point: If the male captain of the boys’ basketball team and the female captain of the girls’ basketball team together approach the school principal to complain about discrimination against the girls’ team, and the principal retaliates by expelling them both from the honor society, then both the female and the male captains have been “discriminated” against “on the basis of sex.” Tr. of Oral Arg. 58-54.
Dissenting Opinion
with whom The ChieF Justice, Justice Scalia, and Justice Kennedy join, dissenting.
The Court holds that the private right of action under Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, for sex discrimination that it implied in Cannon v. University of Chicago,
I
Title IX provides education funding to States, subject to § 901’s condition that “[n]o 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.” 20 U. S. C. § 1681(a). Section 901 does not refer to retaliation. Consequently, the statute prohibits such conduct only if it falls within § 901’s prohibition against discrimination “on the basis of sex.” It does not.
A claim of retaliation is not a claim of discrimination on the basis of sex. In the context of § 901, the natural meaning of the phrase “on the basis of sex” is on the basis of the plaintiff’s sex, not the sex of some other person. See Leocal v. Ashcroft,
Congress’ usage of the phrase “on the basis of sex” confirms this commonsense conclusion. Even within Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 itself, Congress used the phrase “on the basis of sex” as a shorthand for discrimination “on the basis of such individual’s sex.” Specifically, in ensuring that Title VII reached discrimination because of pregnancy, Congress provided that “[t]he terms ‘because of sex’ or ‘on the basis of sex’ include, but are not limited to, because of or on the basis of pregnancy, childbirth or related medical conditions.” 42 U. S. C. §2000e(k); cf. California Fed.
This Court has also consistently used the phrase “on the basis of sex” as a shorthand for on the basis of the claimant’s sex. See, e. g., United States v. Burke,
Jackson’s assertion that the Birmingham Board of Education (Board) retaliated against him fails to allege sex discrimination in this sense. Jackson does not claim that his own sex played any role, let alone a decisive or predominant one, in the decision to relieve him of his position. Instead, he avers that he complained to his supervisor about sex discrimination against the girls’ basketball team and that, sometime subsequent to his complaints, he lost his coaching position. App. 10-11. At best, then, he alleges discrimination “on the basis of sex” founded on the attenuated connection between the supposed adverse treatment and the sex of others. Be
Jackson’s lawsuit therefore differs fundamentally from other examples of sex discrimination, like sexual harassment. Ante, at 174-175. A victim of sexual harassment suffers discrimination because of her own sex, not someone else’s. Cases in which this Court has held that § 901 reaches claims of vicarious liability for sexual harassment are therefore in-apposite here. See, e. g., Davis v. Monroe County Bd. of Ed.,
Moreover, Jackson’s retaliation claim lacks the connection to actual sex discrimination that the statute requires. Jackson claims that he suffered reprisal because he complained about sex discrimination, not that the sex discrimination underlying his complaint occurred. This feature of Jackson’s complaint is not surprising, since a retaliation claimant need not prove that the complained-of sex discrimination happened. Although this Court has never addressed the question, no Court of Appeals requires a complainant to show more than that he had a reasonable, good-faith belief that discrimination occurred to prevail oh a retaliation claim.
The majority ignores these fundamental characteristics of retaliation claims. Its sole justification for holding that Jackson has suffered sex discrimination is its statement that “retaliation is discrimination ‘on the basis of sex’ because it is an intentional response to the nature of the complaint: an allegation of sex discrimination.” Ante, at 174.
At bottom, and petitioner as much as concedes, retaliation is a claim that aids in enforcing another separate and distinct right. Brief for Petitioner 13 (noting the relationship retaliation bears to “primary discrimination”). In other contexts, this Court has recognized that protection from retaliation is separate from direct protection of the primary right and serves as a prophylactic measure to guard the primary right. See Crawford-El v. Britton,
Moreover, that the text of Title IX does not mention retaliation is significant. By contrast to Title IX, Congress enacted a separate provision in Title VII to address retaliation, in addition to its general prohibition on discrimination. §2000e-3(a). Congress’ failure to include similar text in Title IX shows that it did not authorize private retaliation actions. This difference cannot be dismissed, as the major
Even apart from Title VII, Congress expressly prohibited retaliation in other discrimination statutes. See, e. g., 42 U. S. C. § 12203(a) (Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990); 29 U. S. C. § 623(d) (Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967). If a prohibition on “discrimination” plainly encompasses retaliation, the explicit reference to it in these statutes, as well as in Title VII, would be superfluous — a result we eschew in statutory interpretation. The better explanation is that when Congress intends to include a prohibition against retaliation in a statute, it does so. See Central Bank of Denver, N. A. v. First Interstate Bank of Denver, N. A.,
II
The Court’s holding is also inconsistent with two lines of this Court’s precedent: Our rule that Congress must speak with a clear voice when it imposes liability on the States through its spending power and our refusal to imply a cause of action when Congress’ intent to create a right or a remedy is not evident.
A
As the majority acknowledges, Congress enacted Title IX pursuant to its spending power. Ante, at 181 (citing Davis,
The Court’s holding casts aside this principle. As I have explained, supra, at 185-190, the statute’s plain terms do not authorize claims of retaliation. The same analysis shows that, at the least, the statute does not clearly authorize retaliation claims. The majority points out that the statute does not say: “ ‘[N]o person shall be subjected to discrimination on the basis of such individual’s sex.’ ” Ante, at 179 (emphasis in original). But this reasoning puts the analysis backwards. The question is not whether Congress clearly excluded retaliation claims under Title IX, but whether it clearly included them. The majority’s statement at best points to ambiguity in the statute; yet ambiguity is resolved in favor of the States, which must be aware when they accept federal funds of the obligations they thereby agree to assume.
The majority asserts that “the Board should have been put on notice by the fact that our cases since Cannon, such as Gebser and Davis, have consistently interpreted Title IX’s private cause of action broadly to encompass diverse forms of intentional sex discrimination.” Ante, at 183. Gebser and Davis did not hold or imply that Title IX prohibited “diverse forms of intentional sex discrimination”; they held that schools could be held vicariously liable for sexual harassment committed by students or teachers. See Gebser, supra, at 277; Davis, supra, at 633. There was no question that the sexual harassment in those cases was sex discrimination. See Meritor Savings, 477 U. S., at 64 (“Without question, when a supervisor sexually harasses a subordinate
More important, the Court’s rationale untethers notice from the statute. The Board, and other Title IX recipients, must now assume that if conduct can be linked to sex discrimination — no matter how attenuated that link — this Court will impose liability under Title IX. That there is a regulation proscribing retaliation in Title IX administrative enforcement proceedings is no answer, ante, at 183, for it says nothing about whether retaliation is discrimination on the basis of sex, much less whether there is a private cause of action for such conduct. Rather than requiring clarity from Congress, the majority requires clairvoyance from funding recipients.
B
Even apart from the clarity we consistently require of obligations imposed by spending power legislation, extending the cause of action implied in Cannon to Jackson’s claim contradicts the standard we have set for implying causes of action to enforce federal statutes. Whether a statute supplies a cause of action is a matter of statutory interpretation. See Touche Ross & Co. v. Redington,
This Court has held that these principles apply equally when the Court has previously found that the statute in question provides an implied right of action and a party attempts to expand the class of persons or the conduct to which the recognized action applies. Virginia Bankshares, supra, at 1102. More specifically, this Court has rejected the creation of implied causes of action for ancillary claims like retaliation. In Central Bank, we concluded that § 10(b) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, 48 Stat. 891, as amended, 15 U. S. C. §78j, provided no civil action against those who aid and abet individuals engaging in manipulative or deceptive practices, though the respondents urged that such a claim was necessary to fulfill the statute’s protection against deceit in the securities marketplace.
The same reasons militate equally against extending the implied cause of action under Title IX to retaliation claims. As in Central Bank, imposing retaliation liability expands the statute beyond discrimination “on the basis of sex” to
The majority’s reliance on Sullivan v. Little Hunting Park, Inc.,
Ill
The Court establishes a prophylactic enforcement mechanism designed to encourage whistle-blowing about sex discrimination. The language of Title IX does not support this holding. The majority also offers nothing to demonstrate that its prophylactic rule is necessary to effectuate the statutory scheme. Nothing prevents students — or their parents — from complaining about inequality in facilities or treatment. See, e. g., Franklin,
By crafting its own additional enforcement mechanism, the majority returns this Court to the days in which it created remedies out of whole cloth to effectuate its vision of congressional purpose. In doing so, the majority substitutes its policy judgments for the bargains struck by Congress, as reflected in the statute’s text. The question before us is only whether Title IX prohibits retaliation, not whether prohibiting it is good policy. Central Bank, supra, at 177. For
See, e. g., Higgins v. New Balance Athletic Shoe, Inc.,
Tellingly, the Court does not adopt the rationale offered by petitioner at oral argument. According to petitioner, “[bjut for the discrimination on the basis of sex, he would not have complained, and . . . had he not made a complaint about sex discrimination, he would [not] have lost his [coaching] position.” Tr. of Oral Arg. 8. This “but for” chain exposes the faulty premise in the position that retaliation is on the basis of sex. The first and necessary step in this chain of causation is that “discrimination on the basis of sex” occurred. Yet, retaliation claims require proving no such thing. Thus, the “but for” link articulated by counsel between “discrimination on the basis of sex” and the adverse employment action does not exist.
See also Great American Fed. Sav. & Loan Assn. v. Novotny,
Title 42 U. S. C. § 1982 provides: “All citizens of the United States shall have the same right, in every State and Territory, as is enjoyed by white citizens thereof to inherit, purchase, lease, sell, hold, and convey real and personal property.”