NCLA Supports Cert. Petition Seeking Procedural Protections for Accused in Collegiate Title IX Cases

Article here. Excerpt:

'As part of its efforts to enforce Title IX, the U.S. Department of Education has routinely pressured schools to deny due process to the accused in sexual-misconduct investigations. The New Civil Liberties Alliance, a nonpartisan, nonprofit civil liberties group, filed an amicus brief today in support of Jane Doe’s petition for a writ of certiorari before the U.S. Supreme Court in her case against the California State University system and various Title IX administrators. The petition asks the Court to clarify that colleges must provide a hearing before suspending or expelling a student.

Petitioner Doe was suspended for 14 months from enrollment in Sonoma State University based on charges eventually determined to be groundless. The university suspended her while it conducted an investigation, despite never having concluded that she engaged in sexual misconduct and despite a provision in its Title IX policy requiring investigations to be completed within 60 working days. In other words, an administrative body imposed punitive sanctions on an individual for over a year without affording her even the most basic of procedural protections afforded under the U.S. Constitution. No hearing—not even a “kangaroo court” proceeding—was granted.'