Berea College v. Kentucky

Berea College v. Kentucky (1908) is a significantcivil rights case in higher education that paved theway for subsequent judicial decisions that struckdown segregated educational facilities as unconstitutional.

DeFunis v. Odegaard

Affirmative action, which was introduced at the national level by President John F. Kennedy’s Executive Order 10925, called for the creation of the Committee of Equal Employment Opportunity in order to promote access and equity for minorities in programs utilizing federal funds.

Gratz v. Bollinger

Gratz v. Bollinger is a landmark 2003 judgment of U.S. Supreme Court that together with its companion case, Grutter v. Bollinger (2003), defines the circumstances under which officials at colleges and universities may consider race in making admissions decisions.

Grutter v. Bollinger

Grutter v. Bollinger (2003) is a landmark judgment of the U.S. Supreme Court that together with its companion case, Gratz v. Bollinger, clarifies the circumstances under which college and university officials may consider race in admissions actions.

McLaurin v. Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education

McLaurin v. Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education (1950) was one of the key cases that invalidated intra-and interinstitution racial segregation in colleges and universities that helped to pave the way for Brown v. Board of Education, Topeka (1954).

Regents of the University of California v. Bakke

Regents of the University of California v. Bakke (1978) was a landmark case in which the U.S. Supreme Court first addressed the merits of a claim on affirmative action, also identified by critics as race-conscious admissions policies or reverse discrimination (the term used in the plaintiff’s complaint), an extremely controversial topic with regard to admissions programs in higher education.

Sweatt v. Painter

In Brown v. Board of Education, Topeka (1954), the U.S. Supreme Court overruled the “separate but equal” doctrine that it had articulated in the late 19th century in Plessy v. Ferguson (1896).

Southeastern Community College v. Davis

In Southeastern Community College v. Davis (1979), the U.S. Supreme Court reviewed Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 (Section 504) for the first time.

Witters v. Washington Department of Services for the Blind

Witters v. Washington Department of Services for the Blind (1986) addressed the question of whether a student’s use of state disability funds at a religious college would violate the Establishment Clause in the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

Board of Curators of the University of Missouri v. Horowitz

In Board of Curators of the University of Missouriv. Horowitz (1978), the U.S. Supreme Courtreviewed the issue of whether officials at a publicuniversity’s medical school afforded one of theirstudents procedural due process when they tooksteps to dismiss her from an academic program.

Board of Regents of State Colleges v. Roth

Board of Regents of State Colleges v. Roth is one of two key 1972 decisions from the U.S. Supreme Court that helped to establish the parameters of federal due process for employees in higher education.

Keyishian v. Board of Regents of the University of the State of New York

Keyishian v. Board of Regents of the University of the State of New York (1967) arose at a time when it was common for public employers to require their employees, including educators, to subscribe to loyalty oaths.

Kimel v. Florida Board of Regents

Kimel v. Florida Board of Regents (2000) is a landmark U.S. Supreme Court case dealing with congressional ability to abrogate the sovereign immunity of states from lawsuits charging violation of the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA), a federal statute that protects workers over the age of 40 from discrimination.

Knight v. Board of Regents of the University of the State of New York

At issue in Knight v. Board of Regents of the University of the State of New York (1967, 1968) was a state law mandating that all instructors at public schools and at tax-exempt, private schools, including institutions of higher learning, had to sign a loyalty oath.

Lehnert v. Ferris Faculty Association

At issue in Lehnert v. Ferris Faculty Association (1991) was whether the union representing faculty members at a college could compel dissenting members in an agency shop to subsidize legislative lobbying and other political activities not directly related to standard collective bargaining activities such as contract negotiation and grievance adjudication.

National Labor Relations Board v. Yeshiva University

National Labor Relations Board v. Yeshiva University (1980) stands out as perhaps the U.S. Supreme Court’s most significant ruling on whether faculty members may organize and bargain collectively with officials representing their private colleges and universities.

Perry v. Sindermann

At issue in Perry v. Sindermann (1972) was whether the Fourteenth Amendment required college officials to provide procedural due process when they choose not to renew the contract of a faculty member who lacked tenure.

Regents of the University of Michigan v. Ewing

In Regents of the University of Michigan v. Ewing (1985), the U.S. Supreme Court faced the issue of whether university officials acted arbitrarily in violation of a student’s substantive due process rights when a faculty board dismissed him from a program without granting him an opportunity to retake a medical board examination that he failed.

Slochower v. Board of Higher Education of New York City

Slochower v. Board of Higher Education of New York City (1956) stands for the legal proposition that laws pertaining to public employees, including faculty members at public colleges and universities, cannot inferentially treat employees’ assertions of Fifth Amendment privilege not to speak for fear of self-incrimination as automatically equivalent to legal wrongdoing.

Sweezy v. New Hampshire

At issue in Sweezy v. New Hampshire (1957) was whether a state investigation of alleged subversive activities deprived a speaker at a university of due process of law under the Fourteenth Amendment.

Urofsky v. Gilmore

The case of Urofsky v. Gilmore (2000) involved a statute from Virginia that forbade public employees from accessing sexually explicit material on the Internet on publicly owned or leased computers, except in conjunction with bona fide research projects.

Central Virginia Community College v. Katz

In Central Virginia Community College v. Katz (2006), the U.S. Supreme Court held that Eleventh Amendment sovereign immunity, which protects states and their agencies from litigation, did not bar adversarial proceedings brought by a Chapter 11 bankruptcy trustee to set aside alleged preferential payments that operators of a bankrupt bookstore made to public institutions of higher education.

College Savings Bank v. Florida Prepaid

College Savings Bank v. Florida Prepaid Postsecondary Education Expense Board (1999) is a landmark U.S. Supreme Court case dealing with the ability of Congress to exact waivers of sovereign immunity.

Florida Prepaid v. College Savings Bank

Grove City College v. Bell

Grove City College v. Bell (1984) stands out as a dispute in which the U.S. Supreme Court restricted the application of Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 at a private college that accepted no direct federal funding on its own but had large number of students who received federally funded grants.

National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) v. Tarkanian

In National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) v. Tarkanian (1988), the U.S. Supreme Court held that threatened NCAA sanctions against the head basketball coach of a public university did not constitute state action, even though the university was a member of the NCAA, and thus the National Collegiate Athletic Association’s actions did not violate the coach’s civil rights.

Rumsfeld v. Forum for Academic and Institutional Rights

Rumsfeld v. Forum for Academic and Institutional Rights (2006) concerned a constitutional challenge to the Solomon Amendment, a modification in a federal statute that required the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) to deny funding to institutions of higher education that refused to give military representatives access and assistance for recruiting purposes.

Trustees of Dartmouth College v. Woodward

Trustees of Dartmouth College v. Woodward (1819) stands out not only because it was the U.S. Supreme Court’s first case dealing with a dispute involving education but also because it provided constitutional protections for private contracts, albeit in an educational context.

Cannon v. University of Chicago

Cannon v. University of Chicago (1979) stands out as the first case in which the U.S. Supreme Court recognized an implied cause of action for monetary damages under Section 901 of the Education Amendments of 1972, more commonly referred to as Title IX, in response to discrimination based on sex.

Mississippi University for Women v. Hogan

In Mississippi University for Women v. Hogan (1982), the U.S. Supreme Court explored the applicability of the Fourteenth Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause within the context of admissions and gender.

United States v. Virginia

United States v. Virginia (1996) is a landmark U.S. Supreme Court case concerning the ability of state officials to maintain public single-sex institutions of higher education.

University of Pennsylvania v. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission

In University of Pennsylvania v. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC, 1990), the U.S. Supreme Court made it clear that university officials do not have a special legal privilege that allows them to refuse to release administratively and judicially requested materials in disputes about tenure.

Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System v. Southworth

Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System v. Southworth Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System v. Southworth (2000) is a U.S. Supreme Court case that addresses funding of student groups by a public university.

Bob Jones University v. United States

The U.S. Supreme Court’s 1983 opinion in Bob Jones University v. United States, Goldsboro Christian School v. United States, was a landmark decision in companion cases on tax exemptions for charitable giving to colleges and universities as well as K–12 schools.

Healy v. James

Often seen as the analogue in public higher education to Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District (1969), the Supreme Court’s decision in Healy v. James (1972) differs in four significant respects.

Hunt v. McNair

At issue in Hunt v. McNair (1973) was the constitutionality of a program in South Carolina that provided support for religious institutions of higher learning.

Locke v. Davey

Locke v. Davey (2004) concerned the question of whether a state scholarship program violated the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment when, in accordance with a state constitutional provision, it explicitly barred funding for students pursuing degrees in theology.

Papish v. Board of Curators of the University of Missouri

Papish v. Board of Curators of the University of Missouri (1973) was the first case from the U.S. Supreme Court to address student press on campus.

Roemer v. Board of Public Works of Maryland

In Roemer v. Board of Public Works of Maryland (1976), the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of a program from Maryland that made public funds available to religiously affiliated institutions of higher education.

Rosenberger v. Rector and Visitors of the University of Virginia

In Rosenberger v. Rector and Visitors of the University of Virginia (1995), the U.S. Supreme Court held that the actions of university officials in denying funding to help pay for the publishing costs of Wide Awake: A Christian Perspective at the University of Virginia constituted viewpoint discrimination in violation of the Free Speech Clause of the First Amendment.

Tilton v. Richardson

Tilton v. Richardson is a landmark 1971 decision of the U.S. Supreme Court upholding a congressional grant program that made federal funds available to private religious colleges for constructing buildings.

Widmar v. Vincent

In Widmar v. Vincent (1981), the U.S. Supreme Court considered the constitutionality of a state university regulation that prohibited the use of campus facilities by religious student groups.