Opinion

Watts v. Florida International University

  • 495 F.3d 1289
  • 90 Empl. Prac. Dec. (CCH) 42,988
  • 104 Fair Empl. Prac. Cas. (BNA) 1765
  • 2007 U.S. App. LEXIS 19555
  • 2007 WL 2331029
Court
Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit
Filed
Aug 17, 2007
Status
Published
Author
Hill
On the bench
Tjoflat, Carnes, Hill
Cited by
505 cases

holding that a graduate student dropped from a required course could not raise a procedural due process claim because “several Florida Administrative Code sections and state court decisions indicat[ed] that [the student] could seek relief for his procedural deprivations in state court”

How later courts described this case

  • holding that a graduate student dropped from a required course could not raise a procedural due process claim because “several Florida Administrative Code sections and state court decisions indicat[ed] that [the student] could seek relief for his procedural deprivations in state court”
  • finding that a district court correctly dismissed a plaintiff’s procedural due process claim because he did not present “any reason to believe that he could not receive a procedural remedy through a state court proceeding”
  • explaining that at the pleading stage, the plaintiff need only set forth “enough factual matter (taken as true) to suggest” that the elements of the claim are met (quoting Twombly, 550 U.S. at 556 )
  • describing that Twombly does not “impose a probability requirement at the pleading stage” but rather “simply calls for enough fact to raise a reasonable expectation that discovery will reveal evidence of’ a necessary element

Written by the judges who cited it.

The opinion

HILL, Circuit Judge,

concurring:

My colleagues debate well. Concluding that the complaint does not affirmatively show that the appellant may not have a case, I concur in the opinion prepared for us by Judge Carnes.

Now, perhaps, the fact contentions will be developed and, if they should not be in dispute, the court can rule on existing, and not merely alleged, facts. Then, that ruling will determine something of value to the litigants — the resolution of the disagreement.

That is, after all, what the judicial branch is said to be about.

This is a copy of a public record, reproduced as it was published. It is not legal advice, and it may not be the version a court would rely on. Check the official source before you cite it.

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