In Brown v. Rector and Visitors of the University of Virginia, Judge Moon granted the motion to dismiss from the defendants in a case filed by an ex-graduate student.
And, it is a case study of the hurdles to stating a claim against a state school: (1) there is some talk about Bell Atlantic v. Twombly, which provides cover to district courts wanting to move on lame complaints at the pleadings stage; (2) the Eleventh Amendment bars relief against the University as an agency of the Commonwealth - (query, why doesn't the same rule apply to local school boards?); (3) qualified immunity protects individuals in all but the clearest cases of constitutional violations; (4) on a Due Process claim, what procedural process is due is not much, at least not for academic dismissals, or even disciplinary dismissals; and (5) you can't actually rely on representations in a student handbook that are qualified by the customary disclaimer.
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