In “The Takedown of Title IX:  Inside the fight over federal rules on campus sexual assault,” The New York Times highlights the tension between addressing sexual assault allegations and ensuring the due process rights of the accused during campus proceedings.

The piece shares the story of Andrew T. Miltenberg’s experience representing accused college students in Title IX cases. Miltenberg, who estimates that he has represented about 150 students in such proceedings, raises concerns about whether the effort to ensure women’s safety has come at the expense of men’s due-process rights.

“There’s an old saying among lawyers: Justice is not the result, it’s the process,” Miltenberg says. “We give ourselves over to a system. We lose, we win. We hate losing, but you are able to at least say: ‘I couldn’t have asked the judge to do more than he did. He listened, he thought, he read.’ Here you are not having that experience.”

The article concludes with Miltenberg reflecting on his experience representing a campus rape victim earlier this year.

It would be disingenuous, he said, not to acknowledge the concerns of the other side: That if the process is broken, it’s broken at least as much for victims as the accused. That correction can become overcorrection in either direction. The pendulum swings both ways. It shouldn’t, he said, “but I don’t know how to stop it.”

Read the full story [subscription required].

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Pauline Toboulidis

The American Law Institute

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