LAWSUIT: Scholar Laura Kipnis is Sued for Reporting the Facts in a Title IX Case
Graduate student, Lauren Ledyon-Hardy, was a critic of Northwestern University professor Laura Kipnis, before Kipnis’s book Unwanted Advances (which explores how Title IX has come to threaten the rights not only of accused students but also of faculty) appeared…Ledyon-Hardy turned to the courts, alleging that Kipnis’s book was defamatory and improperly disclosed private facts. The lawsuit’s core (which focuses on Ledyon-Hardy’s disagreement with how Kipnis presented evidence) threatens both academic freedom and investigative work about Title IX. Yet U.S. District Court Judge Jack Blakey has greenlighted the suit. Even more troublingly, Blakey held the nature of Kipnis’s research—chiefly her obtaining the Title IX adjudication file—against her. As Kipnis recognized, this material showed how “arbitrary and often outlandish tribunals are being conducted at colleges and universities all over the country, with accused faculty and students being stripped of their rights and, in many instances, simply hung out to dry to give the appearance that higher ed is mobilized against sexual assault.” By tracking down the documents that exposed Northwestern’s dubious conduct, Kipnis failed to rely, Blakey maintained, on “only publicly available information,” undermining her defense against Ledyon-Hardy’s claim of disclosure of private facts. But this type of research has been critical to exposing many problematic Title IX adjudications. In virtually any other context, Blakey’s ruling would have generated widespread condemnation from professors for infringing on academic freedom and from journalists for threatening their ability to report on biased campus tribunals. But in the context of alleged campus sexual assault, due process and the pursuit of truth take a back seat to preserving the status quo.
city-journal.org By KC Johnson
