This section contains the nature of the case and procedural background.

DeFunis (P) individually sued the Board of Regents of the University of Washington after being rejected for law school admission. P maintained that his rejection was predicated on racial discrimination in prohibition of Fourteenth Amendment's Equal Protection Clause. P asked the trial court to issue a mandatory injunction commanding Odegaard (D) to admit him as a member of the first-year class entering in September 1971, on the ground that the Law School admissions policy had resulted in the unconstitutional denial of his application for admission. The trial court granted the requested relief. On appeal, the Washington Supreme Court reversed and held that the Law School admissions policy did not violate the Constitution. By this time, P was in his second year at the Law School. P then petitioned for a writ of certiorari. MR. JUSTICE DOUGLAS, as Circuit Justice, stayed the judgment of the Washington Supreme Court pending the 'final disposition of the case by the Court. P has remained in law school and was in the first term of his third and final year when this Court first considered his certiorari petition in the fall of 1973. Although P was in his third and final year of study and the law school confirmed that it would allow P to complete his matriculation. Both parties contend that mootness did not exist to block formal adjudication of the matter. P brought the suit on behalf of himself alone, and not as the representative of any class.

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