BAD RULING For Due Process. Appeals Court Says BC May Suspend Student Accused Of Sex Assault
A three-judge panel of the First Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston unanimously ruled on Wednesday that Boston College may suspend a student the college found had sexually assaulted another student. Boston College had decided to suspend the student for a year.
The ruling reversed a lower court decision that had ordered Boston College to take back the suspended student. U.S. District Court Judge Douglas Woodlock had found the student likely to win his lawsuit claiming Boston College deprived him of a fair process. He ruled that the accuser and the accused “should be subject to some form of real-time examination.” “A private institution like BC should follow practices that we’ll call fair process that are parallel to due process claims against public institutions,” Woodlock wrote in his decision.
The First Circuit disagreed.
wbur.org-Fred Thys
