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Due Process Tag

We haven't heard much about campus "rape culture" ever since the idea of abolishing the police became trendy in higher education, but Biden's pick to lead civil rights at the Department of Education is bringing it back. Under Trump, Betsy DeVos fought to uphold the concept of due process on campus. Now Catherine Lhamon wants to reverse that.

John Doe v. Oberlin College is a case we have covered for almost two years. While it doesn't get the media coverage of Gibson's Bakery v. Oberlin College, it's every bit as important, addressing alleged systemic abuses at Oberlin College in its treatment of male students. By way of background, we first covered the case on December 26, 2017, Lawsuit: Oberlin College sexual assault hearing process rigged, 100% conviction rate:

In 2017, Oberlin College was sued by an expelled male student who had been found responsible for sexual assault in a campus disciplinary hearing. The student, identified only as John Doe, alleged a seriously flawed hearing process as well as discrimination on the basis of sex because the process allegedly was biased against men. We first covered the case, and the motion to dismiss filed by Oberlin, in Lawsuit: Oberlin College sexual assault hearing process rigged, 100% conviction rate:

The more cases of campus sexual assault adjudications we cover, the more we see patterns. There frequently is an ongoing consensual sexual relationship in which only some of the interactions were claimed to be non-consensual; a delay in reporting the alleged assault; a process in which the accused is left uncertain as to the charges against him; an inability to be represented by counsel or anyone who could give substantive assistance; a university investigation under pressure to "believe" the accuser; the inability to call a key witnesses, the issue of whether there was sufficient affirmative consent (there being no claim that the female said "No"), and of course, the use of alcohol in varying degrees.

Our "foreign" correspondent in California, Leslie Eastman, has made a blog career of documenting the tarnishing of the Golden State by insane legislative and regulatory policies, most of which are rubber-stamped by Governor Jerry Brown. But this week there were two astounding moments of sanity from the Governor.