The objective of the research reported in this speech was to investigate the extent to which alternatives to tenure will withstand legal scrutiny and the degree to which higher education, through the alternative configurations, and the courts, through legal interpretations, are modifying traditional tenure. Tenure principles of the profession are compared with legal principles identified in court cases involving nontenured faculty and with the alternative configurations. Eighty post-1972 court cases were utilized to explain the degree to which the courts have internalized 38 tenure principles identified from analysis and synthesis of professional literature and grouped under the general principle that "tenure is an earned status." Among the conclusions are that neither the alternative-to-tenure configurations nor the courts have altered the classical structure of tenure; the alternative-to-tenure configurations will withstand legal scrutiny; and a significant number of institutions are adopting alternatives to tenure which take a variety of configurations. (Author/MLF)