Federal Judge calls UIL Personnel Childish! TASO comes out ahead again

[TheRef]

TASO Legal Appeal Keeps High School Playoffs on Schedule
AUSTIN, Texas –The Texas Association of Sports Officials (TASO) applauded today’s
agreement in Federal District Court that will allow sports officials to call critical upcoming
football and volleyball games as scheduled.
In a hearing in Austin before Federal District Judge Lee Yeakel, the University Interscholastic
League agreed to drop its demand that sports officials must register with the UIL by Nov. 1 to be
eligible to officiate high school athletic contests. The hearing was in response to TASO’s lawsuit
challenging the UIL’s attempt to create the registration, regulation and licensure program.
“We are extremely pleased the UIL has once again backed off its unauthorized attempt to require
sports officials to register with the UIL as a pre-condition for officiating games. The student
athletes of Texas are the big winners today because important district and playoff football games
and volleyball matches will go on as scheduled,” said TASO Executive Director Michael Fitch.
The UIL was threatening to prevent, or lock out, officials from calling games unless they were
registered with the UIL by Nov. 1. That would have had a severe impact on week 10 football
games and the volleyball and football playoffs because TASO estimates as many as 20 percent of
their members would not register and therefore be locked out by the UIL from calling those
games and the playoff games.
Judge Yeakel set a Nov. 10 hearing on TASO’s lawsuit against the UIL, promising to rule by
December 1.
In addition to abandoning its Nov. 1 registration deadline, the UIL also agreed in open court that
it will not give preference to UIL-registered officials or UIL-affiliated chapters when assigning
officials to games.
“Today’s agreement is very important because it means officials do not have to be registered
with the UIL to be eligible to work games at this time. The very important week 10 football
games can go on as scheduled with the crews that have already been assigned to those games and
the volleyball and football playoffs will proceed uninterrupted,” Fitch said.
“The UIL registration program will do very real damage to the high-quality officiating system
TASO operates that efficiently serves Texas student athletes, parents and school districts” he
(more)
3737 Executive Center Drive, Suite 151 - Austin, Texas - 512-345-9640 - 1-866-283- TASO (8276)
www.taso.org
said, adding the UIL left TASO no choice but to go to court after the UIL adopted a program that
will cripple TASO and high school sports officiating.
TASO officials say many of their members who will not register with the UIL are the more
experienced officials and a UIL lockout would result in a shortage of officials and a noticeable
decline in the quality of officiating.
TASO views the registration requirement as the first step in a government takeover of the most
successful high school officials’ organization in the United States, with the UIL’s ultimate goal
being to tax, license and regulate sports officiating in Texas, which is outside the UIL’s
authority.
“The UIL knows it is on shaky ground and has been backpedaling since springing this program
last year by announcing concessions in hopes of making its registration program seem less of the
power grab that it really is. Without today’s agreement, TASO believes the UIL’s actions would
have created a shortage of officials for the upcoming volleyball and football playoffs resulting in
a scheduling nightmare for athletic events throughout Texas,” Fitch said.

[TheRef]

The judge had the line of the day in reference to Mr. Timmons concerning the email Mr. Timmons send in which he stated he would not send TASO any rulebooks until after the hearing.  The judge stated this was "hopelessly childish."


Mr Timmons is the UIL Director of Officials! AKA The Dancing Monkey

[Mr. Buddy Garrity]

well..... :o 8)

[HoopInsider_Cooper]

[font=Courier]If this would not have happened today, there would have not been enough officials to cover Week 10 or playoff games. [/font]

[TheRef]

You are correct! And I would be warming up my seat in a gymnasium somewhere!

[BIGMO44]

Atta Boy Judge!

[HoopInsider_Cooper]

[font=Courier]Not a bad idea anyway REF!!! LOL[/font]

[HoopInsider_Cooper]

[font=Courier]Another interesting story was emailed to me after today's meeting....this is still far from over...like putting a band-aid over a big wound.
[/font]

A federal judge on Wednesday declined to rule on a request for an injunction filed by a group of high school sports officials seeking to prevent what they call a government takeover of an independent contracting agency.

The Texas Association of Sport Officials, or TASO, filed suit against the University Interscholastic League after the latter amended its rules to make registration with the agency mandatory for all high school sports officials seeking to officiate athletic contests under its purview. The officials were given a November 1 deadline to comply, which some referees said was an attempt at strong-arming them to register or risk losing high-profile assignments the last week of the high school football season and during the playoffs. The UIL is represented by the Texas Attorney General’s office

U.S. District Judge Lee Yeakel delayed ruling on the injunction, and instead raised the issue of whether or not the federal courts had the jurisdiction to preside over the case.

“However I rule I am going to create chaos. The question is do I grant chaos with or without jurisdiction,” said Yeakel.

After more than five hours both sides came to agreement where the attorney general’s office will file a motion for dismissal based on jurisdiction by Oct. 29. TASO has until Nov. 8 to respond and a hearing that will ultimately decide the issue is scheduled Nov. 10. If the injunction is denied the Nov. 1 registration deadline is pushed back to Dec. 1

When asked why the judge brought up the issue over jurisdiction, TASO attorney Matthew Jones said it was a “good question.”

“My thoughts are the judge was inclined to grant it, he just wanted to be sure he had the jurisdiction to do so,” he said. Attorneys with the Texas Attorney General’s office declined to comment outside of the courtroom.

After the rule change TASO alleged in court filings that the UIL was attempting to “take over, tax, oversee and regulate the occupation of sports officiating in the State of Texas” outside of its authority and in violation of the law. The UIL responded that the move is aimed at streamlining communication with the state’s officials and “to complete a short ‘officials compliance program’ to see to it that they have at least working knowledge of the constitution and the contest rules within the UIL.”

The ruling on Wednesday was anti-climactic after testimony in court that alleged the UIL was purposely withholding information from TASO — specifically new rule books for two varsity sports and an incident report following the death of an athlete this year — until after Wednesday’s hearing. The testimony even prompted Yeakel to say the UIL’s actions “smacked to [him] of being almost helplessly childish.”

After the decision Jones said it was “like waiting all day for a punt.”

[HoopInsider_Cooper]

[font=Courier]Basically....

TASO football will be officiating games at least until Dec. 1. [/font]

[TheRef]

Exactly Hoop and Nov. the 10th they go back to court and the Judge told them he would make a ruling befor the DEC. 1 deadline. 

[NorthoftheBorder]

This is a hard job and I am not qualified to do it.  That said I hope that whatever happens the overall quality of refereeing HS football is improved.  To many "homers" and others that are just not up to snuff.