SAVE: Obama Administration Faces a New First Amendment Crisis

Last Thursday the US Dept. of Education (DED) and Dept. of Justice issued a joint decision that:

1. Expands the definition of sexual harassment on college campuses to include any sexually-related conduct that is “unwelcome”
2. Expands the definition of “conduct” to include “verbal conduct”, i.e., speech
3. Removes the “reasonable person standard” and substitutes the “he hurt my feelings” standard

The effect of these changes is to mandate a speech code that severely abridges college students’ First Amendment rights, in addition to the worrisome restrictions on due process protections for students accused of sexual misconduct.

Since the Dept. of Education issued its Sexual Assault Directive in April 2011, over 100 editorials critical of the policy have been published: http://www.saveservices.org/camp/ded-directive/ded-editorials/ And less than one week after the DED/DOJ announced their decision, 22 more editorials blasting the decision have come out – see listing below.

For more information on the DED Sexual Assault Directive, visit our website at: http://www.accusingu.org/