With a Decision that May Lead to New Law, SCOTX Grapples with Two Cases in Which Ph.D. Revocations are Threatened

In two cases to strip two former Texas university students of their doctorate degrees, allegedly for academic misconduct in both, Texas Supreme Court justices Tuesday skirted the state’s argument that one should not be decided because it was not ripe because the University of Texas at Austin had not yet revoked the Ph.D. it threatened to revoke. In the other Texas State University-San Marcos revoked the Ph.D. by its internal administrative procedure.

But lawyers for both graduates pressed the court to consider the very power they argue is missing: The lack of express authority to revoke the degrees in the first place. Both graduates contend the universities’ administrative decisions lack fundamental protections of the property and liberty interests each former student has in their granted degrees.