ATLANTA (AP) – As colleges face increasing pressure to aggressively investigate reports of sex assaults, some critics say the rights of the accused are being trampled. Now they want federal guidance on the issue to be tossed out.
Their target: a “Dear Colleague Letter” issued by the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights in 2011 that laid out specific requirements for dealing with sexual violence under Title IX, a federal civil rights law that prohibits sex discrimination in education.
Schools that don’t comply risk losing federal funding.
Critics say the letter unlawfully imposed binding regulations, with severe consequences for the accused, without going through the public notice and comment process required by federal law. The letter should therefore be withdrawn and schools should review any resulting punishments of students, they say.
“I don’t think we can go so far as to say it would invalidate several years of disciplinary decisions, but I do think it should cause universities to revisit” their decisions and policies to protect the rights of the accused, said attorney Andrew Miltenberg, who filed federal lawsuits targeting the letter in Colorado and Georgia.