9TH CIRCUIT Amends Title IX Liability Considerations
A panel of appeals court judges amended a previous opinion on the liability of colleges and universities for “pre-assault claims,” or the argument that inadequate Title IX policies created a “heightened risk” of sexual misconduct. The judges changed the language in their ruling to be more specific and in line with past United States Supreme Court opinions.
The panel’s decision sent a lawsuit against the University of California system’s Board of Regents back to district court to be heard with regard to this test. The lawsuit was filed by a former University of California, Berkeley, student. But after a lawyer for the regents wrote a petition for the case to be reheard in the Ninth Circuit, the court amended the language of the test, clarifying that the “heightened risk of sexual harassment” must be “known or obvious” to the institution, and as a result, the complainant must have suffered harassment “so severe, pervasive, and objectively offensive” that they were deprived “access to the educational opportunities or benefits provided by the school.”
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