Harvard Guilty Of Giving The Accused Too Many Due Process Rights
Under the Obama admin's interpretation of Title IX, this must stop, writes Ashe Schow at the Wash Ex:
OCR [the Department of Ed's Office for Civil Rights] found that Harvard Law was not adjudicating sexual harassment and sexual assault claims in a "prompt and equitable" fashion."In one instance, the Law School took over a year to make its final determination and the complainant was not allowed to participate in this extended appeal process, which ultimately resulted in the reversal of the initial decision to dismiss the accused student and dismissal of the complainant's complaint," the OCR announcement said.
Basically, a student appealed Harvard Law's "guilty" decision and won -- and under the current climate of how sexual assault must be handled (i.e., accused must be found guilty) this was wrong.
So now, Harvard Law must adopt new policies, including lowering the burden of proof to "preponderance of the evidence," meaning faculty members only have to be 50.01 percent sure an accuser is telling the truth in order to convict the accused student and ruin his or her life.
Harvard Law must also reopen all sexual harassment accusations filed during the 2012-13 and 2013-14 school years to "carefully scrutinize whether the Law School investigated the complaints consistent with Title IX and provide any additional remedies necessary for the complainants." This means that students who may have been acquitted will now be retried under new policies designed to find them guilty. In a criminal court, we would call this "double jeopardy."
Yes, we've now come to the point where it's an offense to be too careful about preserving people's civil liberties.
"Yes, we've now come to the point where it's an offense to be too careful about preserving people's civil liberties."
Men's civil liberties. These policies may seem gender neutral, but they are pure misandry in intent and effect.
dee nile at January 1, 2015 4:10 AM
These policies may seem gender neutral, but they are pure misandry in intent and effect.
Which means they violate title ix
lujlp at January 1, 2015 6:19 AM
The irony is thick - a top law school sanctioned because it too strictly adhered to affording due process protections in a proceeding which could ruin the career prospects of a student. Harvard needs to get with the new idea - in a "She said, he said case", it is required to believe her, and that always satisfies preponderance of the evidence. Just remember:
It's Nine Thirty, and time to begin;
So bring the Guilty Bastard in.
No need a lot of time to spend;
I have a faculty meeting at Ten.
Wfjag at January 1, 2015 6:24 AM
Thank god for Dershowitz. A principled liberal. I don't agree with everything he writes, but I admire him for his commitment to the Constitution.
If it wasn't for him, and his influence, I believe Harvard law would have gone full Stalin by now.
Now that he has retired, they may be swiftly headed that direction.
Isab at January 1, 2015 9:29 AM
The progressive credo: It is better to punish 99 innocents than let 1 guilty go free.
I R A Darth Aggie at January 2, 2015 10:50 AM
"Victims rights" sounds like a great cause. Where it misses the point is it is not the victim who is facing criminal charges and possible incarnation. While I do think genuine victims need grated with dignity, we must not confuse that with assuming all alleged victims are honest. Alleged victims have to be vetted, to make sure the person they are accusing is actually guilty.
My uncle was murdered in 2010 and his killer sentenced to 30 years in 2012. The defense, though respectful to my family, asked some seriously tough questions about my uncle and his background. My mother was upset, for good reason, but part of justice was determining who may want him dead and why. (Side note: after his appeal window ended, his attorney kindly offered to take questions to him for the family.)
Point being, it has to be hard to convict people, and we can't just lock someone up solely on one persons accusation.
Legal system aside, they can't just kick someone off campus because someone who wants him gone says so.
People often don't think things through. All of us, even the innocent, can "allegedly" do something. If it's easy to hurt someone with our accusations, it's easy to be hurt.by accusations.
Trust at January 2, 2015 12:27 PM
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