A federal judge in California has dismissed a class action brought by three Santa Clara University law students who sought a tuition refund after their classes moved online last spring due to COVID-19.

In her March 29 decision, U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh of the Northern District of California wrote that references to on-campus classes and activities on the university's website, course catalogues and bulletins do not constitute a specific promise to students that classes would be held in-person—as the plaintiffs argued. Statements made in those documents are too general to "impose contractual obligations" on the university, Koh found.