FIRE-BACKED Lawsuit Challenging DoED’s Unlawful TitleIX Mandate Voluntarily Withdrawn
Attorneys representing the U.S. Department of Education joined with attorneys for plaintiffs John Doe and Oklahoma Wesleyan University to ask a federal court to dismiss a lawsuit challenging the now-withdrawn mandate that colleges and universities use the low “preponderance of the evidence” standard of proof in all sexual misconduct cases. The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education sponsored the June 2016 lawsuit as part of its mission to restore due process to our nation’s campuses. John Doe and Oklahoma Wesleyan charged that the preponderance mandate did not undergo public notice and comment as required by the federal Administrative Procedure Act and was therefore unlawful. The joint dismissal stipulation states that the Department of Education “will not rely on the withdrawn documents in its enforcement of Title IX.” Due process is in crisis on our nation’s college campuses, and with unwise and intrusive policies like those in the 2011 ‘Dear Colleague’ letter, the federal government had pushed colleges and universities to make the problem even worse,” said FIRE Executive Director Robert Shibley.
