A Promising Sign for Campus Due Process

Is the tide turning against political efforts to stem campus assault? E. Everett Bartlett, the head of Stop Abusive and Violent Environments (SAVE), just sent out an email that quoted prominent liberals displeased with recent federal and state initiatives:

Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA), Sept. 7:

“I do believe you do need, for the accused, you need to maintain due process rights. And then … I think this part of the [Campus Accountability and Safety Act] will probably require some additional review.”

Robin Koerner, Huffington Post, Sept. 8:

“The Californian bill would make the majority of such normal encounters punishable. Were this rule to be generalized beyond California’s educational institutions, then most men who’ve ever engaged in sex would be deemed guilty of having engaged in non-consensual sex.”

Velma Montoya, former chair of the California Advisory Committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, Sept. 9:

With the “Obama administration ordering colleges to determine responsibility using the ‘more likely than not’ standard of proof…students would be wise to learn their Constitutional rights. All members of campus disciplinary panels bring their own prejudices to the process, and in the case of administrators, a bias toward keeping their high-salaried jobs by satisfying their campus political bases.”

Wendy Kaminer, Cognoscenti, Sept. 15:

Have advocates of the Affirmative Consent policy “abided by this rule themselves and requested, received and rendered ongoing affirmative consent throughout every one of their sexual encounters over the years? I doubt it, and I wonder, too, how any adult with a history of sexual activity can reconcile legal theories of explicit, ongoing affirmations with real life, human behavior.”

Batya Ungar-Sargon, The New Republic, Sept. 16:

An Affirmative Consent law would “ratify a double standard into law and have the potential to pervert justice…There is something decidedly bad for women in turning this gray zone into a black one, both as far as feminism and equality is concerned.”

Let’s hope this response furthers the conversation on due process rights for the accused.