Goss v. Lopez

Are students entitled to due process if they are suspended from public schools for 1 to 10 days? If so, what process is due? These were the questions that confronted the U.S. Supreme Court in Goss v. Lopez (1975), its most significant case involving the due process rights of students who are subject to exclusion from school for disciplinary infractions.

Goss arose when Dwight Lopez and other students from the Columbus, Ohio, public schools were suspended for up to 10 days due to a disturbance in the lunchroom. Lopez testified that he did not participate in the destructive conduct, but was just a bystander. He claimed that his suspension without a hearing violated his Fourteenth Amendment right to due process. On further review of a judgment ...