GOOD NEWS. Judge Approves TitleIX Suit Against ASU For Saying Women Can’t Consent To Threesomes
Consenting to a threesome is evidence of incapacitation? An odd statement, but that’s Arizona State University’s rationale for kicking a male athlete out of school. In a tentative ruling Monday, U.S. District Judge Dominic Lanza allowed John Doe’s suit against the public university to continue on Title IX grounds, citing the threesome claim among other plausible allegations. ASU found that “John Doe” violated its code of conduct for sexual misconduct and alcohol violations. It investigated him following a threesome with “Jane Roe” and another male student, with Jane claiming she had been too drunk to consent to sex.
The linchpin of John’s Title IX argument is that the university reached an “erroneous outcome” on his culpability, “motivated by gender bias because John was a male athlete,” Lanza wrote. According to the judge, ASU did not challenge John’s arguments that the disciplinary hearing against him was inaccurate, but rather that he failed to properly connect the allegedly faulty outcome and gender bias. “Although this issue presents a close call, the Court concludes John’s complaint contains just enough case-specific, non-conclusory allegations of gender bias” to survive the university’s motion to dismiss, Lanza wrote.
Lanza cited two rulings from the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which are not binding on his court, that together suggest a university under Title IX investigation may have been induced into discriminating against males in order to preserve its federal funding.These help flesh out the less specific guidance from the 9th Circuit, which binds Lanza’s court, he said.
thecollegefix -Connor Ellington
