Department of Civil Rights Ex Rel. Forton v. Waterford Township Department of Parks & Recreation

This lawsuit comes to us on the question whether the defendant township can operate a basketball program for elementary students that requires separate gender-based leagues playing at different times of the year, without violating the Civil Rights Act, MCL 37.2302; MSA 3.548(302) (hereinafter § 302). In order to answer that question, it is necessary first to decide whether this statute prescribes a standard prohibiting any rulemaking by the state based on gender per se, or whether it incorporates a two-part test coterminous with constitutional equal protection standards; second, whether this…