DEVOS’S Sexual-Assault Rule Prevails. Due Process On Campus Survives In Court.
One of the stakes in November’s election is the fate of the Trump Administration’s due-process reforms for campus sexual-assault cases. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos’s new rule goes into effect Friday, August 14, 2020, and this week it passed its first legal tests.
New York Attorney General Letitia James sued to stop the rule and sought a preliminary injunction. Federal Judge John Koeltl, a Bill Clinton appointee, denied the injunction this week on grounds that the department had followed proper procedure in drafting the rule and would likely prevail on the merits.
“Rather than harming students,” Judge Koeltl wrote, “the Rule has the potential to benefit” both accuser and accused because they “are given greater assurance that if they prevail in the grievance proceeding, that result will not be overturned because the process did not comply with due process.” Meanwhile, federal Judge Carl Nichols ruled on similar grounds against a challenge to the new rule by 17 state attorneys general.
The rulings are vindication for Mrs. DeVos for following the
Administrative Procedure Act (APA) in writing the rule. The Obama
Administration, led on this issue by Vice President Joe Biden,
disregarded the APA by writing “Dear Colleague” guidance to schools
that eschewed public comment. The Trump Administration reviewed
nearly 125,000 comments before making its rule final.
DeVos’s Sexual-Assault Rule Prevails – WSJ –PDF wsj.com-Editorial
