Can a professor hold university officials personally accountable for violating his constitutional rights when they deliberated with lawyers before doing it?
The New Civil Liberties Alliance posed the question to the Supreme Court in a petition seeking review of a 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling that granted “qualified immunity” to University of North Texas officials.
The appeals panel agreed with the trial court that UNT violated Ralph Walsh’s rights in a Title IX proceeding that ended with his termination. But it overturned the lower court’s finding that officials’ behavior was “clearly established” at the time as illegal – the threshold for denying qualified immunity.