CLIENT ALERT: When do the New Title IX Rules start and do they help men under investigation for sexual harassment?
CLIENT ALERT
THE NEW TITLE IX RULES GO INTO EFFECT AUGUST 14, 2020. (1).
There is good news:
Starting summer 2020, men responding to complaints of sexual misconduct have better rights and thus a better chance to continue with their lives after this painful ordeal. The new rights include what you would expect in a democracy:
• THE RIGHT TO LAWYER-UP.
• A LIVE HEARING
• THE RIGHT TO CROSS EXAMINE
• THE COMPLAINANT’S RIGHT TO WITHDRAW THE COMPLAINT
This is different from before (now) when schools could simply:
• RAILROAD SCARED MEN WITHOUT A LAWYER.
• NEVER EVEN SAY WHO HAD COMPLAINED OF WHAT.
• NEVER LET THE MALE FACE HIS ACCUSER
• IGNORE THE FEMALE AND HER LITIGATION RISK.
There is however, bad news;
These new rights are not retroactive. If a man is under investigation now, even during the COVID-19 quarantine, this respondent will suffer from the same risk of abuses to his fairness and due process rights simply because the respondent is a man.
And there is even worse news:
There is no #woke #metoo #feminist who is going to obey the New Title IX Rules, even if they are the law of the United States, because there is no purpose to #woke #metoo #feminism, in its current form, if they obeyed these rules.
• People who believe in these hashtags also run the Title IX offices of most schools and universities in the US. As we have said many times (2) this systemic bias will lead schools to defy these rules. Thus lawyering-up now makes the difference so that the male respondent forces the school to follow the New Title IX Rules.
• As expected of any lobby, several special interest groups are mobilizing to file lawsuits in federal district courts that have the potential of making the New Title IX Rules not go into effect, on the date planned of August 14, 2020. (3). This can be accomplished in the beginning either through a national injunction (which blocks the New Rules in the entire country) or a local one (which blocks the New Rules in one federal district). We blogged on the likelihood of the New Title IX Rules being invalidated back in December, 2019. (4).
• The New Title IX Rules have set off a political firestorm not just for us, the community of lawyers and activists who defend men accused of sexual misconduct, but also for the upcoming election. Vice-President Joe Biden loudly opposed the New Title IX Rules within hours of their publication. (5).
So what is a respondent to sexual misconduct to learn from this news?
A male responding to sexual misconduct in school is immediately labeled as a sexual predator and his ability to regain his good name requires a lawyer. This is true with or without the New Title IX Rules. However, this regulatory improvement doesn’t simply level the playing field:
• If fully and honestly obeyed, the New Title IX Rules save lives and reputations.
• While no one in their right mind is saying or even pretending that the New Title IX Rules should help rapists get away with student rape, what everyone must agree on is that the new Title IX Rules help men and women, straight and gay, white and of color, to complain and to defend against that complaint.
• Student sexual misconduct falls along a spectrum, with intersectionality-based impact along gender, sexual orientation, race, and socio-economic background. The New Title IX Rules make it just as plausible for a wealthy white straight male to regain his good name as for a lower-income gay person of color to clear hers.
Raul Jauregui
Jauregui Law Firm
I am an attorney and I defend mostly respondents of sexual misconduct in colleges or universities. This is absolutely not my legal opinion or my legal advice, but rather survey of the Title IX topic. If you’re in this situation, in any way, consult a lawyer now.
As posted in Quora:
ENDNOTES:
1. See the press release from the Department of Education, available at: https://www.ed.gov/news/press-releases/secretary-devos-takes-historic-action-strengthen-title-ix-protections-all-students
2. The data to back this up, from Pennsylvania which models the rest of the US, is available here: https://www.studentmisconduct.com/news/jauregui-law-office-2019-survey-of-diversity-in-philadelphia-area-college-and-university-title-ix-staff
3. “Fatima Goss Graves, president of the National Women’s Law Center, vowed to fight the new rules in court, saying victims “refuse to go back to the days when rape and harassment in schools were ignored and swept under the rug.”” Erica L. Green, DeVos’s Rules Bolster Rights of Students Accused of Sexual Misconduct, The New York Times, May 6, 2020, available at: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/06/us/politics/campus-sexual-misconduct-betsy-devos.html
5. Jonathan Easley, Biden says he'll reverse DeVos rule bolstering protections for those accused of campus sexual assault, The Hill, May 6, 2020, available at: https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/496518-biden-says-hell-reverse-devos-rule-to-bolster-protections-for-those-accused?fbclid=IwAR08A6TII_4Hn4xtKKzoA2FyTwtjw_6p84i0fIIi7nAru3NMLzvzeV_ii64