A Texas appeals court ruled last month that students at Texas A&M University at College Station should have first exhausted the campus judicial system to pursue their claims in a hazing case before they filed a lawsuit in state court.

The ruling, which overturned a lower-court decision, concerned the university’s attempt to discipline students accused of hazing a member of a cavalry unit in Texas A&M’s Corps of Cadets. The accused sought and received a ruling from a Texas district judge that halted the university’s actions and rescinded punishments it had meted out (The Chronicle, August 16, 2004).

In a 2-to-1 decision handed down on July 19, a three-judge panel of the Texas Court of Appeals overruled the lower-court judge on the grounds that the case was not ripe for adjudication in state court until the campus judicial process had been completed.