Ed Palattella|Erie Times-News

Four high school golfershave come up short of the legal pin in trying to sue their way into the boys District 10 championshiptournament in Meadville this week.

Their emergency motion, docketedin federal court in Erie on Thursday,claimed thatCOVID-19 restrictions that limitedthe number of the tournament's participants and kept each of the four boys from qualifying were unconstitutional.

In a ruling filed lateThursday night, U.S. District Judge Susan Paradise Baxter rejected the arguments of the golfers and their parents, who claimed thatthe Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Associationand the District 10 Committeeviolated their civil rights by imposing the virus-related restrictions.

She said the PIAA and the D-10 Committee, which followed the PIAA's guidance,based the rules on medical advice, and that the restrictions were not "arbitrary and capricious," as the golfers and their parents contended.

"The Court will and should always err on the side of safety, which was the basis for the ruling by the PIAA to lower the numbers of golfers in the tournament," Baxter wrote in a 10-page opinion filed at 11:17 p.m. on Thursday.

"It is not the Courts job to decide the better course, but to ensure the one taken was not arbitrary and capricious, or for a wrongful purpose," Baxter wrote. "Although the decision was a painful one for the Plaintiffs, it was done with a rational basis and passes muster under the law."

The four boys and their parents asked Baxter to issue a preliminary injunction that would have prohibited the PIAA and the D-10 Committee from enforcing the restrictions. Such a ruling would have forced the D-10 Committee to add the four to thefield for the tournament for the boys, which startedFriday with first-round and team play at The Country Club ofMeadville. The D-10 tournament for the girls started on Thursday with first-round and team play.

The D-10 tournaments will conclude with the second and final individual rounds for both boys and girls on Saturday.

District 10 covers Erie County and the rest of northwestern Pennsylvania, Two of the four golfers whose familiessued are seniors at Conneaut Area High School, in Linesville, Crawford County,according to Baxter's ruling. The other twoattend Slippery Rock Area High School, in Butler County, where one is a junior and the other a senior.

Baxter's ruling and the other court records in the case identify the students only by their initials: A.M. and J.V. from Conneaut and L.W. and J.H. from Slippery Rock. All of the court records identify the students' parents by name, and several of theparents testified at a virtual hearing before Baxter on Thursday, according to her ruling. Baxter in her ruling identifiedthe parents who testified asJamie McKalip, Barbra Vaughn, Diana Wolakand Kevin Hadley.

The parents sued on behalf of their sons in Crawford County Court on Wednesday. The other plaintiffs were the Conneaut School District and the Slippery Rock Area School District.

The PIAA and the D-10 Committeewerethe defendants, and they transferredthe case to federal court in Erie on Thursday. They said the move wasappropriate because theplaintiffs claimed, among other things, that the students wereentitled to protection under the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.

Baxter held the virtual hearing at 3:30 p.m. on Thursday, when she heard arguments from all sides for about 2 hours. She issued her ruling about five hours later, filing itbefore the boys D-10 tournament started on Friday.

The case is the latest example of litigation that has occurred across Pennsylvania to challenge restrictions that government authorities have issued to try to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus.

In another recent case, the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, based in Philadelphia, on Thursday stayed a federal district judge's decision that invalidated Gov. Tom Wolf's statewide limits on crowd size and other measures designed to combat COVID-19. The Circuit Court said the restrictions can remainin place as the court hears Wolf's appeal of the Sept. 14 ruling fromU.S. District Judge William Stickman IV in Pittsburgh.

Strickman and Baxter are colleagues on the federal bench for the Pittsburgh-based Western District of Pennsylvania, which includes U.S. District Court in Erie. Both Strickman and Baxter are appointees of President Donald Trump, though President Barack Obama first nominated Baxter and Trump renominated her.

In her ruling in the golfers' case, Baxter referred tothe hardships that the pandemic has created. But she said the PIAA and the D-10 committee acted properly under the law.

"The changes in the D-10 tournament rules that are at issue in this case have no doubt wrought genuine disappointment for the student athletes who were adversely affected by the change, as well as for their families," Baxter wrote."COVID-19 has affected all of our lives and normal dealings, and none more than students who have had their world turned upside down.

"Although the Court is grieved for the students and all they have lost this year, especially the four fine golfers who were dealt this blow just a week ago," Baxter wrote, "we all have to deal with the reality that nothing is the same as it was prior to this pandemic."

The PIAA on Sep. 23 approved reducing the number of golfers who could participate in the state championship tournament. The D-10 Committee the next day followed the PIAA's lead and reduced the number of golfers eligibleto participate in the D-10 championship tournament "and thereby compete for a berth in the state playoffs," Baxter wrote.

In previousD-10 boys championship golf tournaments, the D-10 Committee allowed eightplayers from Region 3, which includes Conneaut Area High School,and nineplayers from Region 2, which includes Slippery Rock AreaHigh School, Baxter wrote in her decision. The virus-related changes dropped the number of eligible Region 3 golfers in the boys D-10 tournament by four, to four golfers. The changes dropped the number of eligible Region 2 golfers by four, to five.

In their petition for a preliminary injunction, the plaintiffs argued that the reductions would"irreparablyharm" the golfers because their opportunity to play in the D-10 tournament"would be forever lost,"especially for the golfers who are seniors.

The plaintiffs' lawyers, Andrew Schmidt and George Joseph, of Erie, also questioned the efficacy of the COVID-19 rules that restrict the number of golfers. The "reduction in numbers has no quantifiable relationship on the spread of COVID-19 as it related to outdoor activities such as golf," they wrote in their petition.

In the PIAA's response, its lawyers Brian H. Simmons, of Pittsburgh, and Alan R. Boyton Jr., of Harrisburg wrote that the PIAA and D-10 Committee based their decisionson sound medical advice. Though the decisions are "certainly subject to review and second guessing," the lawyers wrote, the PIAA and D-10 Committee acted to achievea legitimate purpose.

"Here, the purpose was to reduce numbers of participants to make the spread of infection less likely," the lawyers wrote."The purpose and means of achieving it were both appropriate."

Contact Ed Palattella at epalattella@timesnews.com. Follow him on Twitter @ETNpalattella.

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High school golfers lose federal case over virus rules that kept them from D-10 tourney - GoErie.com