Opinion ID: 160969
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Procedural and Substantive Due Process

Text: 18 Mr. Gossett claimed that he was deprived of his right to both procedural and substantive due process in connection with his involuntary dismissal from the Nursing School. The district court granted summary judgment to defendants on these claims, holding that Mr. Gossett received prior notice of the possibility of dismissal, and that the decision to require his withdrawal was careful and deliberate, not arbitrary and capricious. As discussed below, we are persuaded the record contains a factual dispute as to whether the decision was in fact based on gender discrimination rather than a careful evaluation of Mr. Gossett's academic performance. 19 As an initial matter, we note that Mr. Gossett had a property interest in his place in the Nursing School program that is entitled to due process protection under the Constitution. See Harris v. Blake, 798 F.2d 419, 422 (10th Cir. 1986). We are mindful of the Supreme Court's admonition that the decision whether to dismiss a student for academic reasons requires an expert evaluation of cumulative information and is not readily adapted to the procedural tools of judicial or administrative decisionmaking, Board of Curators of the Univ. of Mo. v. Horowitz, 435 U.S. 78, 90 (1978), and that when judges are asked to review the substance of a genuinely academic decision,... they should show great respect for the faculty's professional judgment, Regents of the Univ of Mich. v. Ewing, 474 U.S. 214, 225 (1985). As the Court indicated in Ewing, however, the notion of judicial deference to academic decisions loses force when, as here, the decisionmaker is accused of concealing nonacademic or constitutionally impermissible reasons for its action. Id. 20 We turn first to Mr. Gossett's claim that the manner in which he was required to involuntarily withdraw from the nursing program denied him procedural due process. When a school makes an ostensibly academic judgment about a student, the procedural requirements of the Due Process Clause are satisfied if the student is given prior notice of the deficiencies in his academic performance and if the challenged decision is careful and deliberate. Horowitz, 435 U.S. at 85; see also Trotter v. Regents of Univ. of N. Mex., 219 F.3d 1179, 1184-85 (10th Cir. 2000). The district court concluded that the procedural requirements for an academic decision were met here. We conclude to the contrary, however, that Mr. Gossett has raised a fact issue as to whether the decision to require his withdrawal was the result of impermissible gender discrimination rather than a careful and deliberate evaluation of his academic ability. 6 Accordingly, we reverse and remand Mr. Gossett's procedural due process claim for further proceedings. 21 Under Supreme Court authority, a plaintiff asserting a substantive due process claim based on an academic decision must show that the decision was the product of arbitrary state action rather than a conscientious, careful and deliberate exercise of professional judgment. See Ewing, 474 U.S. at 224-25; Harris, 798 F.2d at 424. A plaintiff may make such a showing by evidence that the challenged decision was based on nonacademic or constitutionally impermissible reasons, rather than the product of conscientious and careful deliberation. Ewing, 474 U.S. at 225; Harris, 798 F.2d at 424. Mr. Gossett presented evidence sufficient to create a fact issue on whether the decision to require his withdrawal from the nursing program was motivated by impermissible gender discrimination rather than based on an exercise of professional judgment as to his academic ability. Accordingly, summary judgment was not proper on his substantive due process claim. 7 22 The judgment of the district court is REVERSED and REMANDED for further proceedings in light of this opinion.