No fewer than twenty-six leading advocacy organizations plus fifteen state attorneys general have called on Assistant Secretary Catherine Lhamon of the Department of Education's Office of Civil Rights to halt the release of draft Title IX regulations. The concern? The draft regulations may wreak substantial harm on college and university students wrongfully accused of sexual misconduct. Advocates also contend that by adding gender identity to Title IX protections, the regulations will set back historic gains in women's and girl's sports over the past several decades of Title IX enforcement. But the negative implications for wrongfully accused students of abandoning the regulations' historic 2020 due process reforms could be immediate and catastrophic. If you face false, unfair, or exaggerated sexual misconduct or other misconduct allegations at your college or university, retain national college misconduct defense attorney advisor Joseph D. Lento and the Lento Law Firm college misconduct defense team. Protect your education and future with aggressive and effective enforcement of your due process rights.
Rolling Back Historic Protections
The due process concerns that the leading organizations and attorneys general raise have to do with the draft regulations proposed rollback of key 2020 Title IX regulatory reforms ensuring fair Title IX proceedings while increasing protections for the wrongfully accused. The Department of Education adopted those 2020 Title IX reforms after years of study and public comment and in response to key court cases holding colleges and universities liable for due process violations in Title IX enforcement under Obama-era rules. The draft regulations, if released for comment and later adopted through the mandated statutory rulemaking process, could undo key 2020 Title IX due process protections. For example, the current 2020 Title IX regulations guarantee an unbiased hearing panel instead of a single investigator who also serves as prosecutor and decision-maker. The current regulations also state a strict definition for sexual harassment consistent with the statutory Title IX definition instead of a broad definition including verbal conduct, jokes, gestures, and websites.
The Potential Harmful Effects
The analysis of these leading organizations and attorneys general leaves little doubt that new Title IX regulations rolling back the historic 2020 protections will have substantial harmful effects. As those advocates show, the 2020 protections addressed hundreds of successful actions against colleges and universities for due process violations in overly zealous Title IX enforcement biased in favor of the accuser and against the wrongfully accused. If the Department releases the draft regulations for public comment and eventually promulgates final regulations that roll back those historic 2020 reforms, wrongfully accused students may be right back where they were before the 2020 reforms, having to sue their schools to obtain a fair hearing.
If you face false or unfair sexual misconduct allegations at your college or university, national college misconduct defense attorney advisor Joseph D. Lento and the Lento Law Firm college misconduct defense team are available to represent wrongfully accused students nationwide. Attorney Lento has successfully defended hundreds of students nationwide against false and unfair Title IX sexual misconduct charges. Call 888.535.3686 or go online now.
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