It has become a widely accepted aphorism at public institutions of higher education that judicial deference will be granted to public institutions of higher education to protect schools from unwarranted judicial review of a school's decision to dismiss a student for academic failures. Indeed, the judiciary has consistently held that it will not submit its own judgment in place of a school's academic freedom to decide academic issues. Despite this general platitude, it is also true that students dismissed for academic reasons are due some -modicum of due process,- and schools are forbidden to arbitrarily deprive students of their constitutional rights of equal protection and due process. It is with this conflict in mind that this paper analyzes case law in which academic deference has not been granted by the judiciary. From this discussion, this paper offers a dialogue regarding when academic deference is not an issue.