Yale Lawsuit Spotlights Title IX, Sexual Assault 'Hysteria'

[Valin]

Real Clear Politics

Peter Berkowitz
March 05, 2017

In an October 26, 2016, letter to the Wall Street Journal, Professor David M. Post, chair of Yale’s University-Wide Committee on Sexual Misconduct, defended the Ivy League institution’s “procedures for addressing sexual misconduct.” But his formulation betrayed him. By failing to recognize that sound procedures address allegations of misconduct, Post inadvertently raised doubts about the integrity of Yale’s procedures. “Yale’s process,” he nevertheless maintained, “is honest, fair, transparent, and respects privacy.”

 

An amended complaint filed in February in federal court in Connecticut by a recent graduate against Yale, Professor Post, and Senior Title IX Coordinator and Assistant Provost James Killheffer portrays a grimmer reality. If the claims it sets forth are true, Yale’s disciplinary procedures sanction abuse of power in the adjudication of charges of sexual misconduct.

 

In addition to a conventional allegation that the defendants breached Yale’s contractual obligations by failing to comply with the university’s published policies and procedures, John Doe v. Yale University, David Post, and Jason Killheffer includes two unconventional sets of allegations. First, it alleges that though Doe reported his accuser’s sexual harassment of him to Yale authorities, the university violated its responsibilities under Title IX—a federal statute that prohibits sex discrimination in educational institutions receiving federal funding. It did this by responding with “deliberate indifference”; discriminating against him on the basis of sex; retaliating against him for exercising his rights; and selectively enforcing university rules. Second, Doe contends that while Yale is a private university, not a public institution, its biased treatment of him also violated his 14^th Amendment due process and equal protection rights.

 

The facts of this case present a variation on a by-now-familiar theme. Yet it is almost certainly the only case in which a distinguished member of the law faculty warned administrators, as a disciplinary process examining charges of sexual assault was unfolding, that the administration’s conduct placed the school in legal jeopardy. This same professor also subsequently published a scholarly article advancing a novel theory rooted in well-accepted legal principles to explain why, in current circumstances, even a private university’s disciplinary procedures must conform to constitutional requirements of fair treatment. Amid what authors KC Johnson and Stuart Taylor have aptly called in the title of their new book, “The Campus Rape Frenzy,” Doe v. Yale et al. has the potential to reshape the legal landscape.

 

(Snip)

 

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Jack Montague vs Yale

 

 

H/T http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2017/03/title-ix-from-outer-space.php'>Power Line

[Valin]

 

H/T Glenn Reynolds