THE ACLU Sells Its Soul. Abandons Civil Liberties To Sue Betsy DeVos, Due Process
The American Civil Liberties Union has abandoned its mission of defending liberty. It once fought for free speech, for everyone, even neo-Nazis, on the principle that if one person’s civil liberties are in danger, then everyone’s are. The organization used to stand up for the rights of the accused, including the right to the presumption of innocence, even when others used emotion to argue that the guilty have no rights.
Now, the ACLU has descended into political hackery. The organization just sued Education Secretary Betsy DeVos in an attempt to block her department’s efforts to restore due process for those accused of sexual assault on college campuses.
On May 6, DeVos introduced the new rules regarding Title IX and how federally funded colleges and universities must adjudicate sexual assault accusations. DeVos’s new Title IX regulations, which take effect in August, represent an important step toward restoring both fairness for victims and due process for the accused in campus proceedings. She would ensure that all accused students have the right to cross-examine their accusers through an intermediary. After all, the right of the accused to scrutinize and disprove allegations against himself is a central pillar of any fair justice system and plays an important role in the Bill of Rights that the ACLU used to defend.
READ: Former ACLU Pres. Strongly Disagrees w ACLU Case Against DeVos
This whole backlash is baseless. The ACLU should be singing DeVos’s praises for upholding due process and the rights of the accused — a mainstay of historical ACLU principles.The organization once fought for the rights of accused criminals to a fair process. It was not anti-victim when the ACLU fought for accused criminals to have the right to an attorney, a fair trial, and the right to cross-examine their accuser. In like manner, DeVos and her colleagues are right to demand exactly the same rights for men accused of rape on college campuses.
washingtonexaminer-Opinion by Polumbo
