MILTENBERG’s BOLD MOVE: First Class-Action Lawsuit Filed Against University (MSU) for Title IX Due Process Violations
It’s a bold move. The first time anyone tries a new legal approach is, almost invariably, a bold move. It is the first lawsuit in the nation to seek class action status for students accused of sexual assault who’ve been deprived due process; it asks that Michigan State be ordered to vacate or expunge their disciplinary records and reverse or vacate the sanctions levied against those allegedly deprived. The suit filed last year by Andrew Miltenberg, and amended last week, is the first in the nation to seek class-action status and could drastically change the landscape of lawsuits against universities. The lawsuit accuses Michigan State of depriving John Doe of true due process following an accusation that he sexually assaulted a female student. Doe was suspended from the University for two years without being given the opportunity to defend himself in a live hearing where he could directly question his accuser.
“For a long time, people would ask why there wasn’t a class action. There wasn’t a law on the books we could hold a class action on. Now there is, Miltenberg said, referring to the Sixth Circuit’s 2018 ruling. The class action suit defines eligible members of the class as follows: “All MSU students and/or former students, including prospective and future students, subjected to a disciplinary sanction, suspension, or expulsion pursuant to a finding of responsibility under the (sexual violence) Policy (or its predecessor and/or successor policy/policies) without first being afforded a live hearing and opportunity for cross examination.”
“Unfortunately, the misapplication of Title IX has reached new depths at Michigan State,” said Andrew Miltenberg. “Michigan State, in trying to distract attention from its own misdeeds, is consistently and systemically using Title IX as a weapon of law against its accused students, with life-altering consequences for these young men and women.” Every male student accused was denied the same due process as Miltenberg’s clients, but not every male student had the wherewithal to fight back. Did they not suffer the same denial of due process as his clients? If it was wrong for two, what about the hundreds of other students who, according to the school’s annual Clery Report, suffered the same or similar fates for the same reasons? The years lost to these students, expelled or suspended, tainted so they can’t gain admission elsewhere, and the psychological damage each wrongly punished student suffered may go unremedied in a class action, but at least their record will be expunged and they will no longer have their futures permanently darkened by having been expelled from college as a sex offender… Miltenberg is going out on a limb here for the sake of students who can’t afford to hire him, to challenge their college, to fight back against this outrageously unfair ruination of their lives in the name of gender politics. If successful, this could be huge.
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