For years, those opposed to campus adjudication of sexual assault have argued that the document declaring that schools must create court systems was not legally binding. It turns out Education Department officials agree.

The document, known as the “Dear Colleague” letter, was issued in 2011 and directed schools to create courts with severely limited to no due process protections for accused students. This was done supposedly in an effort to combat an “epidemic” of campus sexual assault. Schools that didn’t punish accused students — even if the evidence didn’t support the accusation — were at risk of losing government funding and threatened with federal investigations.