National Review
Biden prepares to deprive university students of their rights to due process
It is always worth reminding people that if President Joe Biden were compelled to live up to the standards he intends to institute for college students accused of sexual misconduct, he would be found guilty of rape, would have any legitimate opportunity to refute accusations of Tara Reade and would be removed from office in disgrace. The New York Times reports today that Kidenka’s “White House Gender Policy Council” in Biden is “beginning its promised effort to dismantle the Trump era rules on sexual misconduct that have provided greater protection for students accused of assault” . The subtitle informs us that, “The Biden administration will review the Betsy DeVos regulations that have given force to the law that granted more rights of due process to students accused of sexual assault.” The most insincere word here – although the piece is full of them – is “more”. The story did not start in 2015, and former education secretary Betsy DeVos did not invent more due process rights in Title IX; it simply restored the fundamental rights to due process, enshrined in time, that have guided justice systems in the liberal world for hundreds of years. The Constitution says – twice – that no citizen will be arbitrarily “deprived of life, freedom or property without due process”. No means no. It was only in 2011 that the Obama administration instituted fewer rights to due process through the force of the law, denying the accused the ability to question the accusers, the right to review the allegations and the evidence presented by their accuser, the right to present excuse evidence, and the right to call witnesses. Basically, the right to mount a defense. It was the Obama administration that asked schools to institute a system that would authorize a single investigator, often untrained and susceptible to the vagaries of social and political pressure, to unilaterally judge these cases. In addition, under the Obama administration’s rules, colleges were allowed to try cases of sexual abuse and assault using a “preponderance of evidence” rather than a stricter standard of “clear and convincing evidence”. Now Jennifer Klein, co-chair of the “Gender Policy Council” and Chief of Staff to First Lady Jill Biden, says that “everyone involved” in a sexual complaint, “accused and accuser”, should be entitled to due process. OK. Has anyone ever argued that the accuser’s right to speak out should be diminished or that the accused should receive less protection than any other American who claims to have been the victim of a crime? We must never lessen the pain and anguish experienced by those who come forward with these accusations. But the presumption of innocence is a legal term based on a value system. And if the federal government is going to dictate how colleges deal with sexual assault charges, it has a responsibility to respect the Constitution’s rules. The good news is that, between 2011 and 2021, there were a series of lawsuits repudiating Biden’s position. Hundreds of lawsuits have been filed since 2011. A 2015 study by United Educators found that a quarter of Title IX status was challenged by students who filed lawsuits in federal courts or filed complaints through the Department of Education’s Civil Rights Office. . Dozens of schools, including Northwestern University, Dartmouth College and Yale, have solved cases, while schools like USC, Pennsylvania State University, Ohio University, Hofstra, Boston College and Claremont McKenna have lost decisions. Schools complained about the costs of implementing due process, but the average cost of resolving these claims was around $ 350,000, with some reaching as much as $ 1 million. This, not by chance, also means that some people guilty of sexual assault will claim to have been victims of erroneous hearings or unfair sanctions simply because they can circumvent the rules of justice. Proper due process protects both the accuser and the accused. At a minimum, the state must ensure that students have the same impartiality, standards and protections that each of us expects in the real world. Either we believe that principles are the best means of justice or not. Biden, it seems, only believes in them for himself.