BIG VICTORY! Ed Dept. Issues New Title IX Regs With Crucial Campus Due Process Protections
Advocates for free speech and due process on campus won one of their biggest-ever victories today with the finalization of long-awaited new Department of Education Title IX regulations. The regulations guarantee critical due process protections that Americans recognize as essential to securing justice, but that have for too long been denied to students accused of sexual misconduct on college campuses. The regulations also include important protections for student free speech rights. “For nearly a decade, FIRE led the charge to introduce fairness to campus proceedings, first nearly alone, then with a growing number of allies,” said FIRE Executive Director Robert Shibley. “Today, we won an important victory. But our work is not over. We will continue to fight to ensure that students are afforded the rights now guaranteed to them when they return to campus this fall.”
Among the procedural protections guaranteed by the new regulations are:
- An express presumption of innocence;
- live hearings with cross-examination conducted by an advisor of choice, who may be an attorney;
- sufficient time and information — including access to evidence — to prepare for interviews and a hearing;
- impartial investigators and decision-makers;
- a requirement that all relevant evidence receive an objective evaluation.
The regulations also affirm institutions’ ability to use the “clear and convincing” standard of evidence, which the government previously forced schools to abandon in 2011 for the lower “preponderance” standard in sexual misconduct cases.
Finally, the regulations define “sexual harassment” as it was defined by the Supreme Court of the United States in Davis v. Monroe County Board of Education (1999). This definition provides a clear path for institutions to respond to allegations of misconduct while also protecting students’ expressive rights.
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