Final rules regarding Title IX at colleges and universities will be in effect. Some on the left may find the new rules too restrictive. Individual schools were urged by the Ohio school board to not follow the new guidance, as it allowed transgender boys to compete with girls.
There is a new rule that governs sexual assault at colleges and universities. Betsy DeVos was Donald Trump’s secretary for Education. She wrote new rules to overturn the un-American, draconian rules on sexual assault first published under Barack Obama. These rules denied the accused any due process and placed a thumb on a scale that almost guaranteed that a male student would find guilty.
That was changed by DeVos. Biden, however, has reversed DeVos’ rules and restored colleges to a standard which denies young men due processes and makes it easy to dismiss a student with no fair hearing.
Schools are required to use a “preponderance-of-the-evidence” standard in investigating complaints under the Biden administration regulations. Investigators must find a student accused guilty if they believe the allegations to be true. To punish an accused student under the DeVos regulations however, universities must present “clear, convincing evidence”.
Title IX investigators are now allowed to deny students access the evidence against them under the new regulations. They can only give students an “orally” description of the evidence. Students are not allowed to view transcripts or testimony. Schools can now deny students accused of crimes a hearing or allow them to question their accusers.
The Obama-era rules are not appeal-proof. Reason.com reports that since 2011, “approximately 117 federal courts as well as several state courts have raised concerns about the absence of meaningful procedural safeguards in campus adjudications.”
Like many others, these judges viewed Obama’s Title IX Rules, which Biden is copying now, as fundamentally unfair. In the 2016 case Doe-v. Brandeis University, Judge F. Dennis Saylor IV of the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts stated that determining whether someone is a victim is something that should be determined after a fair process and not an assumption. It is reasonable to demand that college students be given fair opportunities to defend themselves and that an impartial arbitrator make the decision.
When the left opposed Devos’s rules, their main argument was that it would make women more reluctant to come forward. It’s not a bad thing if they are implying that it will be more difficult for women to file a sexual assault claim. It shouldn’t be harder for victims of crimes to come forward. However, this should not negate the clearly defined due-process rights of the accused. These rights are granted to serial rapists and stupid college kids.
This issue should be brought up by Congress, if only to end the absurdity of changing the rule depending on which president is in power. However, Democrats will insist on the fact that all women must be believed.
