DeFunis v. Odegaard

DeFunis v. Odegaard
Supreme Court of the United States
Argued February 26, 1974 Decided April 23, 1974
Full case name	Marco DeFunis, Jr., et al. v. Odegaard, et al.
Citations	416 U.S. 312 (more) 94 S. Ct. 1704; 40 L. Ed. 2d 164; 1974 U.S. LEXIS 128
Prior history	Certiorari to the Supreme Court of Washington
Holding
The Court held that the case was moot.
Court membership
Chief Justice Warren E. Burger Associate Justices William O. Douglas · William J. Brennan, Jr. Potter Stewart · Byron White Thurgood Marshall · Harry Blackmun Lewis F. Powell, Jr. · William Rehnquist
Case opinions
Per curiam.
Dissent	Douglas
Dissent	Brennan, joined by Douglas, White, Marshall
Laws applied
U.S. Const.

DeFunis v. Odegaard, 416 U.S. 312 (1974)^[1], was a United States Supreme Court case decided on April 23, 1974, that was determined to be moot, and therefore could not go forward. American student Marco DeFunis who had been denied admission to the University of Washington School of Law in the state of Washington, and then had been provisionally admitted during the pendancy of the case, was slated to graduate within a few months at the time the decision was rendered.^[1]

The Court rejected the assertion that the case fell into either of two exceptions to the mootness doctrine that were raised by the plaintiff. The case did not constitute "voluntary cessation" on the part of the defendant law school, because the plaintiff was now in his final semester, and the law school could take no action to deny him the ability to graduate. Nor was this a question that was "capable of repetition, yet evading review" because the plaintiff would never again face this situation, and others who might raise the same complaint in the future might be able to receive full review in the courts.

See also

• List of United States Supreme Court cases, volume 416

References

1. ^ Karabel, Jerome. The Chosen: The Hidden History of Admission and Exclusion at Harvard, Yale, and Princeton. Boston: Mifflin, 2005.

External links

• Text of DeFunis v. Odegaard, 416 U.S. 312 (1974) is available from: Justia · Findlaw

• Case Brief at Lawnix.com
• info of DeFunis v. Odegaard