⚖ Oral Arguments, with Context

The Ninth Circuit considers whether Matthew Boermeester can pursue federal claims over his expulsion from USC. The university investigated a 2017 incident in which witnesses reported that he grabbed a woman by the neck and pushed her against a wall. He disputes the abuse finding, and the woman later denied abuse, but USC expelled him for intimate partner violence. His challenge to the school decision ultimately failed in California courts; a federal judge also dismissed his related civil rights claims. Those claims include Title IX, which prohibits sex discrimination in federally funded education. The question now is whether the earlier proceedings bar his federal lawsuit. Judicial exhaustion here asks whether he had to get a court order overturning the school decision before pursuing those claims.

Boermeester v. University of Southern California, et al. (No. 25-2332) — U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, argued October 29, 2026.