The MHSAA contended that there are insufficient coaches in Michigan to schedule soccer and swimming concurrently.
Second, the MHSAA offered survey evidence showing that Michigan girls and member schools prefer to play in the current seasons.
Finally, the MHSAA claimed that its nontraditional seasons give girls an "independent identity.
First, the court found that the MHSAA is a state actor, and thus subject to liability for constitutional violations.
On 18 August 1994, which was a date between their 19th birthdays and the start of their senior years, Ronald and Craig sued the MHSAA and the Rochester and Grosse Pointe school systems in federal district court.
In September the court entered a preliminary injunction that 1) restrained all three defendants from preventing the plaintiffs from participating in interscholastic cross-country and track and 2) prevented the MHSAA from sanctioning Rochester Adams and Grosse Point North for permitting the boys' participation in interscholastic meets.
As a threshold matter, the district court ruled that, by virtue of its membership, the MHSAA was a "public entity" under Title II of the ADA and that, by managing interscholastic athletic events, "it operated places of education" and "places of entertainment" under Title III of the ADA, which generally prohibits disability discrimination in private places of "public accommodation.
The MHSAA appealed the issuance of the preliminary injunction.
