Philip Palade, Gregory Borse, and J. Thomas Sullivan

Summary

The court affirmed dismissal without prejudice of tenured faculty members' declaratory-judgment action because their alleged contractual and free-speech injuries were speculative, hypothetical, and not supported by an actual, present controversy. The pleadings did not allege that the plaintiffs had engaged in or intended to engage in conduct newly subject to discipline, or that anyone had been disciplined under the revised policy. The court therefore concluded that the plaintiffs lacked standing and that their claims were not ripe or justiciable.