A closely divided Supreme Court (Justice O’Connor writing for the majority) has held that Title IX, which bars sex discrimination by federally funded entities, affords protection not only to the victims of such discrimination but also to otherwise unaffected whistleblowers (in the case at hand, a male basketball coach who claimed to have been fired in retaliation for complaining about discrimination against a girls’ team). The general rule of statutory interpretation, based on considerations of federalism, is that Congress must clearly state its intent to expose state and local entities to private lawsuits. Not so here: Title IX, unlike analogous statutes governing race discrimination, says not a word about retaliation. The case at hand illustrates the true principle of the Supreme Court’s federalism: In conflicts between feminism and federalism, the ladies win.