SEATTLE -- A U.S. appeals court has rejected an appeal brought by three University of Oregon basketball players who said they were discriminated against when they were kicked out of school over rape allegations.
A female student accused Dominic Artis, Damyean Dotson and Brandon Austin of raping her at a party in 2014, allegations that prompted protests on campus. No criminal charges were filed, and the three maintained that the sexual contact was consensual, but the school dismissed them over code-of-conduct violations.
The players sued in 2015, saying they suffered gender discrimination, among other claims. A federal judge threw out their lawsuit. On Tuesday, a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously upheld that decision.
The panel said the three failed to make a plausible claim of discrimination.