Contemporary recreation, sports, or tourism legal issue - Essay Example

The amount of lawsuit and the diversity of cases in the sports fraternity have been on a surge as more people rely on the courts to solve disputes. The laws have the required expertise to enable the smooth running of the sports. There exists variation as to the way the law is defined, one school of thought hold the view that a law is a congregation of regulations and rules that govern a particular action. Sport law refers to the application of existing laws to recreation and sports. Sports governing bodies operate almost similar to state administrative and federal institution.

The governing structures of sports organization are based on the federal laws, regulations and rules. For example, the guideline adopted by the National Football League in the U.S resembles traditional state tort law principles. Thus when a dispute over the interpretation of a regulation or rule arises, lawyers represent the participants and the principal body to resolve the dispute via the administrative structures set up by the sport organization. The Constitution of United States does not guarantee freedom from an invasion of privacy.

To justify an action for invasion of privacy, a petitioner must show the cause why the invasion is significant and is in an area for which there is anticipation of privacy (Flannery, 1998 pp 9). In the sports business, such cases are not uncommon especially in drug testing programs. Consider the case involving (Acton v. Vernonia School District 1995); James Acton challenged the drug testing program initiated by Vernonia School District as an invasion of privacy. However the Supreme Court established that school children had a smaller expectation of privacy because athletics subjected one to a need for medical attention, physical examination and a locker room environment.

The Court thus upheld the view that drug testing does not constitute an invasion of privacy (Lisa, 2008 pp87).However the Vernonia ruling is not likely to be relevant to collegiate athletes. In the Acton v. Vernonia case, the judge further explained that the high school students had a lower expectation of privacy given their minor age and were under the care of the school in absence of their parents. Given the situation it was the sole responsibility of the teachers to ensure discipline is observed at school.

On the other hand, collegiate athletes are considered adults under less supervision from the college and university administration. An example is the U.S Supreme Court decision not to grant a hearing of an appeal of the Supreme Court of Colorado's verdict which found that drug testing program on football players at the Colorado University constituted an invasion of privacy.During the Proceedings, (University of Colorado v. Derdeyn, 1993), the Supreme Court of Colorado ruled that despite the University's concerns in protecting the student's welfare, the argument is not sufficient enough to warrant the intrusion on privacy through random testing for drugs on the players (Lisa, 2008 pp 94).

Herbs, (1985) notes that constitutional challenges to drug testing have been unsuccessful in professional sport. For instance, in 1994, the federal district court of Pennsylvania ruled that the National Football League (NFL) drug testing program was not subject to a constitutional challenge because of the absence of state action. The court (NFL v. Long) ruled that neither the commercial association between the Steelers and the City of Pittsburg