Russell v. Board of Trustees

Raymond Russell appeals the District Court’s 1 dismissal of his suit for injunction under 42 U.S.C. §§ 1981 and 1983 against the Board of Trustees of the University of Arkansas. Russell claims that the Board lowered the age of mandatory retirement that had previously been in effect, without giving him notice and an opportunity to be heard. This action, he asserts, deprived him of property without due process of law.

The District Court held in a thorough opinion, Russell v. Board of Trustees of University of Arkansas, 502 F.Supp. 916 (E.D.Ark.1980), that Russell had a “property interest”…