superior court

A Santa Clara University law student defying the school’s COVID vaccination requirements filed a lawsuit this week claiming the school is blocking him from moving to a different law school for a degree.

Ryan Driggs, who does not have a lawyer for the case and is representing himself, alleged in the suit that the university, after barring him from registering for classes, is denying his transcript requests in order to keep him from “securing the economic advantages completion of his legal education would bring.” Driggs, of San Jose, claimed the purported moves by the school will push him into a “substantially less prestigious and remunerative vocation.”

The university did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the allegations.

Driggs started at Santa Clara Law in 2020, and the conditions of his enrollment did not include a COVID vaccine or booster, his suit filed Thursday in Santa Clara County Superior Court said.

The university in April 2021 mandated that students must be vaccinated against COVID by the fall 2021 term. In December, a booster mandate was added. Both orders allowed for medical exemptions. In a March court filing from a similar lawsuit by two Santa Clara University undergraduates and a prominent anti-vaccination group, the school’s campus physician said he had reviewed 28 exemption requests, granted six on a permanent basis and two on a temporary basis, with four pending and 16 denied.

Driggs said in his suit that he did not “consent to or comply with” the vaccination or booster requirements. His suit did not provide reasons for his non-compliance. He claimed in the suit that he repeatedly reached out to the university in an attempt to resolve the issue. “When he requested to be put in contact with a person who had the authority to modify Santa Clara