“Male and female student have a drunken hookup. He wakes up, terrified she’s going to file a sexual misconduct complaint, so he goes to the Title IX office and beats her to the punch. She is found guilty and suspended.” [Caitlin Flanagan, The Atlantic quoting Robby Soave, Reason on University of Cincinnati case]
Posts Tagged ‘Title IX’
May 23 roundup
- Judge denies motion to dismiss Title IX suit against Laura Kipnis [Maddie Burakoff, Daily Northwestern, KC Johnson thread on Twitter] First Circuit appeal considers whether persons unconnected with a university can initiate Title IX complaints against it [District of Rhode Island decision in Doe v. Brown via Nicholas Wolfinger thread on Twitter]
- “Do we really need to tell you how a rent control regulatory takings claim fared in the Ninth Circuit? We didn’t think so.” [Robert Thomas, Inverse Condemnation, on Colony Cove Properties, LLC v. City of Carson]
- Judge boots 30-year-old who refused to move out of parents’ house [Douglass Dowty, Syracuse Post-Standard] More: Lowering the Bar.
- As the Supreme Court narrows the gate for Alien Tort claims, here come the inevitable proposals to widen it again by statute, as by FCPA-izing ATS [Pierre-Hugues Verdier and Paul Stephan, Lawfare]
- “Theatre Must Provide Captioning For All Live Performances Says Federal Judge” [Minh Vu, Seyfarth Shaw; Fabulous Fox Theatre in St. Louis]
- Still relevant, alas: what I wrote on the ADA and golf competition 20 years ago [Reason “From the Archives”]
An elevator joke and an academic career
Recycling a joke that was already old when I was a teenager, academic conference-goer on elevator calls out “Ladies’ lingerie” in reference to a floor stop. Then begins the acrimonious process in which he must defend his career against the complaint filed by a women’s and gender studies professor who was present and took offense. [Ruth Marcus, syndicated/Houston Chronicle] More: Katherine Mangan, Chronicle of Higher Education.
Melnick, “The Transformation of Title IX”
Not seen yet, but promises to be an important read: R. Shep Melnick’s “The Transformation of Title IX: Regulating Gender Equality in Education” Publisher’s blurb:
Few laws have had such far-reaching impact as Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972. Intended to give girls and women greater access to sports programs and other courses of study in schools and colleges, the law has since been used by judges and agencies to expand a wide range of antidiscrimination policies – most recently the Obama administration’s 2016 mandates on sexual harassment and transgender rights.
In this comprehensive review of how Title IX has been implemented, Boston College political science professor R. Shep Melnick analyzes how interpretations of “equal educational opportunity” have changed over the years. In terms accessible to non-lawyers, Melnick examines how Title IX has become a central part of legal and political campaigns to correct gender stereotypes, not only in academic settings but in society at large. Title IX thus has become a major factor in America’s culture wars – and almost certainly will remain so for years to come.
Related: “23 Cornell Law Profs support suspended male student in Title IX court appeal” [William Jacobson, Legal Insurrection]
Higher education roundup
- Ruth Bader Ginsburg: “There’s been criticism of some college codes of conduct for not giving the accused person a fair opportunity to be heard, and that’s one of the basic tenets of our system, as you know, everyone deserves a fair hearing.” Jeffrey Rosen: “Are some of those criticisms of the college codes valid?” Ginsburg: “Do I think they are? Yes.” [Atlantic] Related: Stuart Taylor Jr. & KC Johnson, Real Clear Politics; Linda LeFauve & Stuart Taylor Jr. on the long-deflated yet still influential Lisak campus rape study;
- “Forcing Students to Apply to College Is a Bad Idea” [George Leef, Martin Center, earlier]
- “Congress Should Deregulate Private Universities, Not Regulate Them More” [John McGinnis, Liberty and Law on bill to restrain colleges from applying discipline for membership in a fraternity or sorority]
- “What’s more, any program proposed by a Maryland university must be reviewed by the monitor to ensure it will not harm the historically black schools.” [Danielle Douglas-Gabriel, Washington Post]
- 88-year-old NYU psychology professor denounced to bias cops for curricular choices on gender politics, not using students’ preferred pronouns [Dean Balsamini/New York Post, Alex Domb, Washington Square News on case of Prof. Edgar Coons] Ideological state of the law schools not good [Mark Pulliam/Misrule of Law, and thanks for mention]
- “No one should be entitled, though, to a particular mix of holiday celebrations.” [Eugene Volokh on Loyola (Chicago) controversy]
Emily Yoffe at Cato
If you missed the December Cato event with acclaimed writer Emily Yoffe on the problems with campus sex-misconduct tribunals, you can watch here as well as checking out KC Johnson’s live-tweeted summary. Yoffe was joined by commenter Ruth Marcus of the Washington Post and moderator John Samples of Cato, who kindly stepped into my place when I was unable to attend. Earlier here and here.
Schools roundup
- “Wyoming: Efforts to strip state courts of jurisdiction to hear K-12 funding lawsuits reintroduced; courts could declare funding system unconstitutional but could not order more funding” [Gavel To Gavel, more on school finance litigation]
- Coalition of accusers’-rights groups sue Education Department demanding restoration of earlier Obama versions Title IX guidance [KC Johnson Twitter thread pointing out weaknesses in suit]
- “A High School Student Faces Expulsion for Noticing the Square Root Symbol Looks Like a Gun” [Scott Shackford]
- How a political machine based on the schools lobby ran one affluent suburban county (Montgomery County, Maryland) before fumbling its grip [Adam Pagnucco, The Seventh State]
- Costs approach $1M in Southern California special ed dispute over one student’s education [Ashly McGlone, San Diego Union-Tribune]
- Japan: “Of course, this ignores the absurdity that students are being required, or feel required, to dye their hair because of a policy that was supposedly meant to prohibit students from dying their hair.” [Lowering the Bar]
Colleges and anonymous chat
The Yik Yak app is gone, but it leaves behind an important pending Fourth Circuit case on the First Amendment limits of Title IX [Ilya Shapiro on Cato amicus brief in Feminist Majority Foundation v. University of Mary Washington]
Watch today: Emily Yoffe and Ruth Marcus on Title IX
At 4 pm Eastern today, watch online at Cato live as acclaimed writer Emily Yoffe discusses her recent blockbuster Atlantic series on the problems with campus sex-misconduct tribunals (parts one, two, three, earlier coverage here and here). Washington Post columnist Ruth Marcus will offer commentary. Although I had been scheduled to moderate, an emergency has come up and I am unable to be there; instead Cato’s John Samples will be taking my place.
Schools roundup
- Despite withdrawal of Obama-era guidance on Title IX and discipline, many colleges sticking so far to its prescriptions [Ashe Schow, Real Clear Investigations] GW Federalist Society debate with Stuart Taylor, Jr. vs. Wendy Murphy, moderated by Renee Lettow Lerner [video] And don’t forget next Tuesday’s Cato event at which I’ll host journalist Emily Yoffe discussing her blockbuster Atlantic series on this subject, with Ruth Marcus of the Washington Post commenting [watch online or register to attend]
- Feds have no business coercing school districts into race-based discipline policies. Time for DeVos to act to rescind Obama guidance [Max Eden, National Review; related, Jerome Woehrle, Liberty Unyielding (on Hans Bader’s work), Dave Huber, The College Fix (Minnesota)] “Racial disciplinary quotas violate equity in its root sense. They entail either systematically overpunishing the innocent or systematically underpunishing the guilty. They place race at war with justice.” [Posner, chief judge, in People Who Care v. Rockford Board of Education, 111 F.3d 528 (7th Cir. 1997);
- Oxford grad sues university over “disappointing” exam grades nearly twenty years ago, blighted his hopes of Harvard Law [Kaye Wiggins, Bloomberg]
- Ford Foundation, teachers’ unions back new group that will sue schools, states, feds on civil rights issues [Michael Stratford, Politico, third item]
- For kids to be sent off to English-language boarding schools did ruinous harm to American Indian communities, right? Testing the conventional account [Matthew T. Gregg, Journal of Development Economics via Tyler Cowen]
- Lenore Skenazy of Free-Range Kids fame has a new nonprofit taking it the next step [Let Grow]