On Friday, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos proposed a Title IX rule that would provide clarity for schools, support for survivors, and what she called “due process rights for all.” This sounds fair, just, and timely, given the number of increasingly complex rape cases on college campuses. Some would say this even comes at a time when the nation’s education system could use such clarity. Still, DeVos received immediate and vicious backlash, claiming she did not care about abused women.
DeVos said in a statement:
This comes on the heels of a rising number of sexual assault cases on college campuses and elsewhere. Some turned out to be true. Some turned out to be false. The consequences, in both cases, turned out to be extremely damaging. In the case of the now-infamous University of Virginia rape story, Rolling Stone published an account of rape that turned out to be completely fabricated, and had to pay out nearly $2 million in damages to the fraternity whose members were falsely accused of gang rape. While false rape charges are rare, they do happen and can ruin the accused person’s life. Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation hearings showed what the future might look like for many qualified men and women entering public service, should legal regulations on campus rape remain muddled.
DeVos’ detractors came out in full force. The ACLU (which at the least used to be in favor of “due process for all”) vehemently opposed the reforms.
The proposed rule would make schools less safe for survivors of sexual assault and harassment, when there is already alarmingly high rates of campus sexual assaults and harassment that go unreported.
— ACLU (@ACLU) November 16, 2018
Due process is a foundational element of constitutional law in this country, which purports to help enact justice fairly and equally to those accused. Those who oppose DeVos’ rule are likely, in the case of college rape, conjuring an image of a naive, attractive 19-year-old woman who tried alcohol and sex with a sophomore at the same time one night at a party — only to discover she ended up drunk and raped?
I have daughters. I, too, want them protected. But what about the young men who attend college, looking for a bright future, and end up being falsely accused of rape six months after what he believed to be consensual sex — only to fight for due process for six years and ultimately receive a guilty verdict anyway?
I have sons. I, too, want them protected. To this end, DeVos’ rules seem mostly sound, reasonable, and legal.
For the most part, DeVos’ new rules seem necessary and an important element to furthering the right to due process, something that has been all but lost in many known and unknown campus rape cases peppering the news cycle over the last several years.
Nicole Russell (@russell_nm) is a contributor to the Washington Examiner’s Beltway Confidential blog. She is a journalist who previously worked in Republican politics in Minnesota.
