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

Four students (P) and five nontenured faculty members of Howard University (D) were involved in a campus disturbance. The students were expelled, and the teachers were informed that they would not be rehired. A hearing was requested by all the plaintiffs. D refused. D was sued by the teachers for breach of an implied contract to rehire the teachers and by the teachers and the students for a failure to provide a hearing. The action by the students was dismissed (mootness). The teachers' motion for a preliminary injunction was denied, and the teachers appealed. The teachers cited D's handbook: nontenured instructors were informed in January or April of decisions not to rehire. D delayed its decision until June 19. The teachers claimed that they had a reasonable expectation that they would be rehired. D's position was that it could arbitrarily dismiss nontenured teachers at will and without providing a prior hearing.

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