Office for Civil Rights Should Respect Rights

The Wall Street Journal features Hans Bader's letter to the editor. 

Harvard Law Prof. Jacob Gersen is right to criticize the Education Department for wrongly finding Harvard Law School in violation of Title IX for using the traditional “clear and convincing evidence” standard in sexual harassment and assault cases. But that was the least of the Education Department’s overreaching. It also forced Harvard to provide temporary “interim measures” against accused students who are later found innocent of sexual harassment, even though such measures can violate students’ free-speech and due-process rights. And it wrongly found Harvard Law School’s sexual harassment policy in violation of Title IX for not parroting federal bureaucrats’ supposedly nonbinding views about how to handle off-campus sexual misconduct. Those views, expressed only in “guidance” from the Office for Civil Rights, contradict court rulings such as Roe v. St. Louis University (2014).

Hans Bader

Competitive Enterprise Institute

Washington

Read the full article at the Wall Street Journal.