This article reports that the U.S. Supreme Court is scheduled to hear arguments in December in a case that could make it more difficult for plaintiffs to win sexual-discrimination or sexual-harassment lawsuits against colleges and other educational institutions. The justices will decide whether to uphold a decision of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, in "Fitzgerald v. Barnstable School Committee," that could limit the scope of such lawsuits. Some professors worry that placing limits on the laws under which individuals can bring allegations of discrimination could hamper efforts to make campus environments harassment-free. Groups representing institutions argue that plaintiffs' lawyers in the case are seeking unnecessarily broad legal protections. The case is expected to have the most-direct ramifications for higher education of any on the Supreme Court's docket this year. If the justices uphold the appeals-court decision, then lawsuits filed under Title IX, the 1972 law that prohibits sex discrimination at institutions that receive federal funds, could not also include claims of civil-rights violations under a Civil War-era federal law, Section 1983, that enforces the equal-protection clause of the 14th Amendment to the Constitution.