For the first time in recent years—since long before the Department of Education’s draconian “Dear Colleague” letter in April 2011—it has become respectable to champion the due process rights of college men accused of sexual assault.
On October 15, 2014, a letter was published in The Boston Globe signed by 28 Harvard law professors that voiced strong objections to the school’s one-sided, feminist-inspired sexual misconduct policies. At the time, we said: “This letter is the single most important statement to date about American colleges’ hostility to due process when it comes to men accused of sexual misconduct.” All of a sudden, this became a hot issue. Professor Alan Dershowitz, a titan of criminal jurisprudence, told Time magazine: “Harvard’s policy was written by people who think sexual assault is so heinous a crime that even innocence is not a defense.” Then, he clarified his opposition to Harvard’s sexual assault policies: “It’s really not a criticism of Harvard,” he said. “It’s a criticism of the federal government. It’s a criticism of the Obama administration.”
He added, “These rules are written to preclude a defense” for accused students.And that was only the beginning. In the past week, we’ve seen the floodgates open. Finally.The New York Times suddenly discovered there’s another side to the story in “New Factor in Campus Sexual Assault Cases: Counsel for the Accused.” That one followed quickly on the heels of Yale law professor Jed Rubenfeld’s indictment of the system in The New York Times: “Mishandling Rape.”
David Bernstein in The Washington Post has a perceptive piece called “Three questions about the legality of the Obama Administration’s anti-sexual assault on campus policies.”
The Daily Aztec takes issue with the “yes means yes” law in “Consent bill hinders judicial rights.”
Law student Michael Shammas has a surprisingly perceptive piece on Huffington Post: “To Harvard and Other Universities: In Protecting Students From Sexual Assault, Don’t Disregard Due Process.”
In The Stanford Daily, Neil Chaudhary says the system is broken: “Realigning universities’ paralegal sexual assault systems.”
The Star-Ledger has an excellent editorial: “College sex crime investigations violate rights of men, too.”
In The Wesleyan Argus, Bryan Stascavage has some interesting ideas as he calls for schools to take a balanced approach in “Understanding Title IX: Addressing Misperceptions about Sexual Assault.”
In The Diamondback, Patrick An paints a frightening picture of injustice in “A fair judicial system cannot be forgotten: The revised Sexual Misconduct Policy contains potential legal injustices.”
Gil Smart has a humorous take on the hysterics in connection with the Jessica Valenti—Wendy McElroy debate: “Assaulted by an opinion.” We wrote about that debate here.
The Australian has a biting piece on feminist excesses: “Women’s lib no longer on agenda of today’s authoritarian feminists.”
