Project

Pushing Back Against Abuse of Title IX to Undercut Due Process Protections for Persons Charged with Campus Sexual Assault, and to Impose Gender Ideology

Project Details

Party(ies) Involved

U.S. Department of Education; Miscellaneous colleges and universities

Location

Washington, DC, et al.

Time Frame

2016-Present

Project Overview

On July 12, 2022, the Federal Register published a 190-page proposed rulemaking whereby President Biden’s Department of Education (DOE) is trying to revive and expand upon Obama-era administrative rules regulating how schools define and punish sexual harassment. The Obama Administration eviscerated due process protections during school adjudications of sexual harassment claims. The Trump Administration restored them, but under the proposed rulemaking, the Biden Administration is moving to gut them all over again. Specifically, DOE proposed to water down rights to have a live hearing and cross-examine opposing witnesses, adopt a reduced proof standard (preponderance standard), and otherwise make basic rights toothless. The proposal would also substantively expand its mandate to force gender ideology down the throats of every school that receives Title IX funding. The comment period ended September 12, 2022.

Our Involvement

Legal Insurrection Foundation has worked extensively to raise awareness of, and to oppose the threat to, due process rights.

On October 4, 2020, LIF conducted an online program entitled “Due Process on Campus, What’s Next?” The program featured presentations by KC Johnson, professor of history at Brooklyn College; and Samantha Harris, of counsel to the firm of Mudrick & Zucker and Senior Fellow of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE). LIF founder and president William Jacobson, clinical professor of law and director of the securities law clinic at Cornell Law School, moderated a discussion with the presenters.

On September 12, 2022, Legal Insurrection Foundation sent a letter to the Honorable Catherine Lhamon, Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights, Office for Civil Rights, U.S. Department of Education, urging DOE not to move forward with its proposed revisions to Title IX regulations.

Case Documents

Letter from LIF’s William A. Jacobson and Johanna E. Markind to the Hon. Catherine Lhamon, Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights, Office for Civil Rights, U.S. Department of Education September 12, 2022

Media Coverage

William A. Jacobson, Cornell’s kangaroo court for accused men, LEGAL INSURRECTION (July 28, 2016).

Kemberlee Kaye, Due Process on Campus: What’s Next? (October 4, 8 p.m. ET), LEGAL INSURRECTION (September 18, 2020).

Kemberlee Kaye, In case you missed our live event: Due Process on Campus, What’s Next? LEGAL INSURRECTION (October 14, 2020). Video of the October 4 program is embedded within the article.

Edward Bartlett, Dept. of Education Should Think Twice Before Attempting to Weaponize Title IX, LEGAL INSURRECTION (May 15, 2022).

Johanna Markind, READ: Our Opposition To Biden’s Plan to Gut Campus Due Process and Free Speech, and Impose Gender Ideology, LEGAL INSURRECTION (September 13, 2022).

Johanna Markind, Nineteen Democratic Senators Sign Letter Supporting Title IX Changes Gutting Campus Due Process and Free Speech, and Imposing Gender Ideology, LEGAL INSURRECTION (September 17, 2022).