RULING: UMICH Officials Can Be Held Personally Liable For Violating Accused Rights
The University of Michigan’s refusal to recognize an accused student’s “clearly established due process rights” led a federal judge to deny its administrators “qualified immunity” in the student’s lawsuit. Senior U.S. District Judge Arthur Tarnow went much further, declaring the school’s 2018 Title IX policy unconstitutional and an element of the “interim” policy that replaced it unconstitutional. “John Doe” sued the taxpayer-funded institution in 2018 because it placed an “indefinite hold” on his transcript and degree after a female student accused him of sexual misconduct. It also withheld “any form of hearing or cross examination,” per its policy that year.
Months later, in a different lawsuit against UMich known as Baum, the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ordered public universities in its jurisdiction to allow cross-examination and live hearings when credibility is an issue in Title IX proceedings. But a lower profile 6th Circuit ruling against the University of Cincinnati in 2017 had already established that public universities must provide “some kind of hearing” for a student to “share his version of events” in disputes that are dependent on credibility.
UMich’s argument that John’s due process rights were not violated because no sanctions or findings of guilt were levied against him was flatly rejected. “Plaintiff’s injury lies in the deprivation of one of the most basic due process rights—the hearing itself,” Tarnow wrote, granting John summary judgment on his due process claim. His denial of qualified immunity leaves eight officials potentially liable as individuals, including Pamela Heatlie, who was quietly removed as senior director of the Office for Institutional Equity after the Baum ruling, and Robert Sellers, the very well paid chief diversity officer. Also affected: Provost Martin Philbert, named in a similar lawsuit by an accused professor; Office of Student Conflict Resolution Director Erik Wessel; Dean of Students Laura Blake Jones; now-retired Vice President of Student Life E. Royster Harper; OIE investigator Suzanne McFadden; and Registrar Paul Robinson. (Tarnow’s impatience with the university has been public knowledge for months. Last summer the judge blasted UMich for hiring three firms even before trial and fighting his order for President Mark Schlissel to appear at a settlement conference.)
On the other hand, the judge dismissed John’s state and federal gender discrimination claims. The accused student “failed to show a plausible inference of intentional gender discrimination,” since his Title IX proceeding is still pending and “no outcome has occurred.” Because federal courts are hesitant to decide novel issues of state law, including John’s sex discrimination claim, Tarnow dismissed those as well. “The University may proceed with its disciplinary proceedings” against John, so long as it includes “a live hearing, in person or via video communication, with the opportunity to cross-examine witnesses” and his accuser, the judge said.
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