Wilkerson v. University of North Texas Ex Rel. Board of Regents

STEPHEN A. HIGGINSON, Circuit Judge:

A Texas university declined to renew a lecturer’s contract. After several extensive but unsuccessful administrative appeals, that lecturer sued the school and its administrators, alleging a deprivation of his property interest in his job without due process and tortious interference with his employment contract. The district court denied summary judgment to the administrators on their immunity defenses. We reverse.

I

The University of North Texas is a state institution with a formal tenure track. Plaintiff-appellee Dale Wilkerson was never on that track. He…