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Suppose Kal-El, son of Jor-El, living under the assume identity Clark Kent, decides to spend some time as a professional athlete.

Suppose he reveals his true identity. Obviously most professional athletes protest that this is unfair and actually mostly pointless because he can outperform entire teams of athletes to amazing fits and set new unbeatable records.

Clark Kent, however, does not relent. He insists that he should have the same right to participate in sports and (for example) earn a college scholarship if he wants to play on a sport team for his college team.

Is there anything in the current law which would allow a college to deny him the right to make a certain sport essentially irrelevant by playing it?

While I am asking the question in jest, I also ask that you, please, support your answers with links (or at least quotes) of the relevant rules, laws and regulations.

For the purposes of this question, let's assume that the question of Kal-El's citizenship has been legally settled based on the fact that his adopted parents adopted him legally. Let's assume the courts have settled this issue, at least for this one individual.

Ryan M
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grovkin
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    In your hypothetical, is he younger or older than 21 years old? If he's 21 or older, then he would have birthright citizenship in the US by statute, barring a SCOTUS ruling saying that extraterrestrials do not qualify as a "person"; but if he's younger and it can be proven he was not born in the US, he would not have citizenship in this way. I imagine his citizenship status would be relevant to what legal rights he might succeed in claiming he has and have been breached. – zibadawa timmy Feb 05 '21 at 05:24
  • Some of which may be dealt with in the answers here – zibadawa timmy Feb 05 '21 at 05:28
  • @zibadawatimmy I believe his citizenship is not in question because his adapted parents are US citizens and they have been his legal guardians since he was a toddler. But I guess I should clarify this in the question. – grovkin Feb 05 '21 at 06:04
  • The second question I linked covers the legal status of his adoption specifically. – zibadawa timmy Feb 05 '21 at 06:09
  • @zibadawatimmy thank you. But I wanted to narrow the question to the specific issue of college sports, so I added a stipulation to the question. You were right to point out that it should have been addressed though. – grovkin Feb 05 '21 at 06:11
  • Do you mean besides the fact that he is not human? – Damila Feb 06 '21 at 03:40
  • @Damila if you want to answer it with references to existing legal basis for why that would matter, than you might provide an answer which does not yet exist. Do be mindful of all the stipulations though. He is a legal US citizen with all the rights that come with it. And we are not looking to explore additional plot lines... only the limits of the current legal system. – grovkin Feb 06 '21 at 05:38
  • On what basis do you imagine he is entitled to play college sports? – jmoreno Jul 20 '21 at 02:09
  • @jmoreno enrollment and ability to perform? – grovkin Jul 20 '21 at 17:12
  • @grovkin: actually, he’s missing a critical piece, “sportsmanship”, if he plays he engages in unsportsmanlike behavior. – jmoreno Jul 22 '21 at 00:22
  • @jmoreno if you believe that there is a legal standard on who gets to make that determination and that according to that standards he could be rejected, you can put it in an answer of your own. Please, remember that this is a question about the current existing law. – grovkin Jul 24 '21 at 20:17

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Let's assume the college receives some amount of federal funding, because quite a lot of them do. Let's also assume that Superman is considered to be a natural person for legal purposes—that is, he has all the rights a human would—so that his case isn't going to get dismissed on that ground.

Superman's best bet would be to allege race discrimination under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (42 U.S. Code § 2000d)

That law states:

No person in the United States shall, on the ground of race, color, or national origin, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance.

For obvious reasons, there's no precedent on whether a non-homo sapiens species of intelligent humanoid aliens is a "race" for civil rights purposes. However it seems like a reasonable argument could be made that it would be. For one thing, in terms of plain meaning, the term is extremely common to describe such beings (1.7 million+ hits on a web search for "alien races"—as one relevant example, Wikipedia has a List of alien races in Marvel Comics), and it would be a straightforward way to incorporate them into existing anti-discrimination law. Since all Kryptonians gain superpowers on earth, discriminating against him on the basis of his superior abilities would be, in effect, discrimination due to his Kryptonian race.

A less compelling, but still plausible, argument might be that this is national origin discrimination under the same law (based on the fact that they're discriminating based on his being from Krypton).

Ryan M
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  • I am not sure that they would discriminate based on nation of origin. He may leave that part out. In fact, he may not even reveal that he was born off of Earth. It would be sufficient for him to reveal that his ancestors were extra-terrestrial to explain his super-human abilities, while leaving the exact place of his birth undisclosed. Mind you that the question itself is not about possible plot-lines (that would belong on sciencefiction.SE). The question is about the laws of our reality. So an answer should keep additional fictional claims to a minimum. Assume he identifies as white. – grovkin Feb 05 '21 at 07:56
  • @grovkin National origin discrimination does not require being born in a specific place (nor does it require that the person discriminating have been informed of that fact). I'm not discussing potential plot lines: his membership in the Kryptonian race is established. The fact that he may also identify as white doesn't seem dispositive: someone can have multiple races. – Ryan M Feb 05 '21 at 08:01
  • I don't think I'm making additional fictional claims here, just interpreting existing law to a fictional situation. Nowhere in my answer am I claiming he did anything in particular or identifies any specific way that's not in the question or well-known facts about Superman. – Ryan M Feb 05 '21 at 08:03
  • While I appreciate you humoring and answering, I have tried to make it clear that the question is about whether his extreme super-human abilities would give enough leeway for him to be disqualified under the existing law. You answer is more applicable to this particular instantiation of the principle I am trying to explore, but not to the principle at large. – grovkin Feb 05 '21 at 08:06
  • Would it make the question more precise if I changed it from Superman to the Hulk? – grovkin Feb 05 '21 at 08:09
  • @grovkin Your question describes his background as a secret alien. His superhuman abilities are entirely due to his alien race. The question of whether a Caucasian human (like Bruce Banner) with superhuman abilities having nothing to do with a secret identity as an alien would be a different question. You could ask that question separately, but please don't edit your question to invalidate this answer, which addresses the question you asked. This question/answer pair are already positively scored; I imagine that would do well, too. – Ryan M Feb 05 '21 at 08:13
  • For what it's worth, I think the answer to that question is yes, lt'd be legal: Bruce Banner isn't a member of a protected class, and any ADA arguments would be defeated by the fact that "not hulking out" is a bona fide occupational qualification for athletes. – Ryan M Feb 05 '21 at 08:16
  • you are right. i won't edit the question (at least not substantially enough to invalidate any existing answers). i guess i am just surprised that the gist of what I was asking didn't stand out. – grovkin Feb 05 '21 at 09:10
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    Consider this argument: Sports leagues do not permit the use of "performance enhancing drugs" which, for an alien race of Kryptonians, would include Yellow Sunlight as they are clearly only enhanced while in the presence of that substance. Under the native Red Sun of Krypton, Clark Kent would be as extrordinary as your average human. This could also apply to Bruce Banner, who is only performing his amazing feats under the effect of Gamma Radiation exposure and hormones related to rage. Thus, it is legal for Kryptoninans to compete in football but not while under the influence yellow sun – hszmv Feb 05 '21 at 16:11
  • @hszmv I believe (and correct me if I am wrong) that the list of performance enhancing drugs is not open. In fact, it's a list. So it's closed to those substances (and maybe some medical practices during training). Sunlight is not on that list. – grovkin Feb 05 '21 at 19:04
  • @grovkin: I do not know, but one thing to consider is that while the Team or the League may have other organisations that can make other legal challenges, such as the players union as paying a single Kryptonian is more cost effective than a team of ordinary players, which would get hell from the players unions. Additionally, players unions may call for strikes to playing the game while Superman is employed with the league. Reasonable accomodations laws do point out unreasonable accomodations are not protected, so the league could fire superman for damage caused by the player's union strike – hszmv Feb 05 '21 at 19:21
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    @hszmv in ref. to 1st sentence of your last comment.. the question is about real-life laws. So a if college athletics have rules about doping which are broad enough that they can include sunlight, that would require a reference. As for the rest of the comment, If you know of a legal theory which can be used to challenge Kal-El's participation in college athletics, and you can explain it with references, you are probably in a position to write a good answer. – grovkin Feb 05 '21 at 19:27
  • @grovkin: The final act that could be pulled, is that even if the judge orders the Metropolis Meteors (I checked, that is one of two Metropolis NFL teams in the comics), the judge still can't order the coach to use Clark Kent in a game play, thus making him a super bench warmer. Finally, NCAA rules do stipulate that a prospective Student may not allow his/her likeness to be used for promotional purposes. I'm staring at a lunch box with a certain Kryptonian's picture on it that I'm sure will get Kent kicked from the team. I also have a few of his t-shirts. – hszmv Feb 05 '21 at 19:38
  • @hszmv only if it can be shown that Kent, or his lawyer, authorized the use of his image. Which, I would wager, is not the case. – grovkin Feb 05 '21 at 19:40
  • @grovkin: I actually don't have specific rules on hand, but I'm just pointing to ways a league could disqualify a Kryptonian from participation that have nothing to do with him being a Kryptonian. These could take years for the court to wade through. – hszmv Feb 05 '21 at 19:40
  • @hszmv: Would the rule about likenesses apply to usages which predate the person's entry into sports? If e.g. someone appeared in a television commercial as a child, would that represent a lifetime disqualification from NCAA sports? – supercat Jan 07 '23 at 21:34