AMHERST JUDGE: Male student expelled for sexual assault may have been victim himself
CALIFORNIA JUDGE: Disparity in campus tribunal ‘enough to shock the Court’s conscience’
CORNELL: Caused ‘actual harm’ to student accused of sexual assault
COLORADO STATE UNIVERSITY PUEBLO: School’s sexual assault proceeding suggests ‘bias and inaccuracy’
OHIO JUDGE: Accused students have right to cross-examination
watchdog By Ashe Schow
A wave of bills dealing with campus sexual assault are moving through state legislatures, and many of them would codify elements of contentious federal guidelines that deprive accused students of due process rights. The measures would make it easier for accusations to result in expulsions and the permanent branding of students who may be innocent, without allowing them a chance to defend themselves. Some of the bills would expand the definition of sexual assault by narrowing the definition of consent to the point where nearly any sexual encounter could be considered non-consensual.
thecollegefix By Greg Piper watchdog By Ashe Schow
There are clearly some women out there who are deeply confused about what it means to be raped, and they are, in many cases, being misled by the adults around them. As documented in “The Campus Rape Frenzy,” the Title IX coordinators encourage young, impressionable women to call every incident of regrettable drunken sex “rape.” These days, the reasons for falsely claiming rape have much more to do with the campus soap opera and the sexual politics of one’s peer group… When you decide to ruin a man’s life and reputation in order to cover up your own mistakes or get what you want from others, you’re not a victim-you’re a sociopath.
nypost By Naomi Schaefer Riley
Office for Civil Rights held open focus groups at Cornell during which members of the public could discuss the campus climate surrounding sexual assault and harassment. A Cornell parent, reported that a lawyer cautioned her against sending her son to Cornell based on the University’s reputation for treating students accused of sexual assault unfairly. When the OCR attorneys asked for specifics on how the University might treat accused students unfairly, attendees quickly responded with a list of grievances: respondents have no ability to examine or confront accusers or to question witnesses or be represented by an attorney, and they, like complainants, are unaware of the investigation’s timeline.
cornellsun By Drew Musto
The Obama administration twice rewrote federal rules governing how allegations must be handled at colleges. In particular, since 2011, when DoED reinterpreted Title IX to require that sexual assault cases be judged by a “preponderance of the evidence” -a lower burden of proof than is used in criminal cases -more than 100 accused students have sued their schools. In most of these recent cases the colleges have lost, as they should have. Colleges are at best incapable of adjudicating allegedly criminal conduct, and at worst hopelessly biased. The vast majority of schools we studied now use procedures that stack the deck against accused students. Recent cases can be divided into two groups. In the first are colleges that considerably broadened the definition of sexual assault. The second group includes schools that violated their procedures, which were unfair to begin with.
latimes.com By KC Johnson and Stuart Taylor
An amended complaint filed in February against Yale et al, portrays a grim reality. Yale’s disciplinary procedures sanction abuse of power in the adjudication of charges of sexual misconduct. The conventional wisdom is that while public universities, as government actors, must comply with constitutional requirements, private universities operate under no such constraints. This is broadly correct. But under “state action” doctrine …“If government requires or induces a private party to engage in law enforcement, all relevant constitutional restraints apply.” This, Doe contends, is exactly what the Obama administration DoED did in April 2011 when it instructed universities, on pain of losing federal funding, to investigate, adjudicate, and punish all allegations of sexual assault. That is, although the government also demanded that universities shrink due process protections for the accused, by deputizing them to engage in law enforcement in addressing allegations of sexual misconduct, the administration in effect imposed on them an obligation to comply with constitutional guarantees of due process and equal protection. This lawsuit is very likely the first to test Rubenfield’s (Yale Law Prof. and Doe’s adviser) legal theory of “Privatization, State Action, and Title IX: Do Campus Sexual Assault Hearings Violate Due Process?”
realclearpolitics By Peter Berkowitz
A University of Chicago student suing the school over anti-male bias built into its sexual assault investigation system is continuing his lawsuit against the school, in which he is demanding $1.35 million, even though the school purportedly dropped its disciplinary action against him, and after he settled with a female student who allegedly triggered the disciplinary action by accusing him of sexual assault.
cookcountyrecord By Scott Holland
Of all the campus cases since the Dear Colleague letter, the Amherst case is the worst. This case featured a student (JD) who not only could use his accuser’s own words to prove his innocence, but could demonstrate from the college’s own findings that he was, plausibly, a sexual assault victim—and yet the college culminated a biased process by expressing disinterest in his evidence. If Amherst could get this lawsuit dismissed, it would be hard to imagine any set of facts in which an accused student could be certain of prevailing. On Tuesday, however, Judge Mark Mastroianni, an Obama appointee, allowed the lawsuit to proceed. There’s little reason to believe that Mastroianni was eager to make this decision. This is a judge who didn’t appear ideologically inclined to side with the accused student. (In a case at UMass, he sided with the university, despite ample grounds for doubting UMass’ fairness)
academicwonderland By KC Johnson Doe v Amherst Decision
No matter who Trump nominates, the key task for the next OCR head to do is to reverse its intrusion into campus discipline procedures for students accused of sexual assault. The toxic effects of that intrusion are the subject of a recent book by Johnson and Taylor. In The Campus Rape Frenzy: The Attack on Due Process at America’s Universities, the authors give a detailed account of the damage wrought by OCR’s “guidance” to colleges. One of the most startling points the authors make is that the use of OCR methods actually undermines an important element of the justice system—Miranda rights. That is because OCR encourages schools to share evidence they’ve obtained without the presence of an attorney with the police, who can then use it if they press charges. “The major effect of this policy,” write the authors, is “an end-run around the accused’s constitutional right not to be subjected to custodial questioning by police without lawyers.”
jamesgmartin.center By George Leef
Barbara Snyder, President of Case Western Reserve University is being sued along with The Board of Trustees, and staff for not following the University’s own disciplinary guidelines, for male discrimination and for refusing John Doe to review witness testimony prior to his disciplinary hearing. “Without receiving a notice of investigation, a discussion of his rights and responsibilities or the CWRU policies and procedures, and without an advisor or support person to accompany him, John Doe was blindsided when he arrived to attend a mandatory meeting with the CWRU Title IX investigator,” Doe says from the outset, he was presumed guilty. Case Western Reserve University suspended him for three years and kicked him out of his dorm based on false allegations of sexual assault with his then-girlfriend that were not supported by factual evidence.
courthousenews By Kevin Koeninger