Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who died September 18, 2020 at the age of 87, was famous for her staunch feminist support of Title IX rights—including the due process rights that protect the accused and alleged victims alike. The justice, fondly known in pop culture as “Notorious RBG,” has…
Read More
Published on nationalreview.com For years, universities have denied basic procedural protections to students accused of sexual misconduct. Despite the seriousness of such allegations, schools routinely condemn students as responsible without so much as a hearing or the opportunity to confront their accusers. This was supposed to change when the Department of…
Read More
Read the decision: Order to Disclose Campus Advisor Records The US District Court for the Northern District of New York has just ordered Syracuse University to hand over the records of a campus “advisor” who gave procedural advice to the complainant in its Title IX proceedings after the judge found…
Read More
Featured on Quillette I’m an attorney representing a professor at the University of Central Florida who is being subjected by the university to what can only be called an inquisition after expressing opinions on Twitter that led to widespread calls for his firing. UCF is a public institution—an instrument of…
Read More
The topic of free speech is one of the most contentious issues in liberal societies.Many people know that free speech is enshrined in the First Amendment but there's still a lot about it that many still misunderstand so let's read on. The widespread protests surrounding issues of systemic racism have…
Read More
Featured on National Review A “pall of orthodoxy” has descended over an increasing number of American institutions. The stifling of dissent and the pressuring of people to conform to ideological dogmas that began in universities has spread to the media and even to the corporate world. While official government censorship…
Read More
By Jonathan B. Orleans and Michael Thad Allen The first formal changes to Title IX’s implementing regulations in 45 years are here, and they are significant. The federal statute, which prohibits sex discrimination in educational programs receiving federal financial assistance, had its earliest impacts on intercollegiate athletics. But since the…
Read More
With widespread protests around the nation in the wake of the killing of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer, free speech of and on campus is once again at the forefront. Even though almost all schools are now closed, and almost all speech and the actions of students and…
Read More
Featured on Quilette.com Universities today bombard students with two contradictory messages about sex, effectively encouraging them to carry a dildo in their pocket, while lugging a fainting couch behind them. On the one hand, universities have returned to a quasi-Victorian concern with the unique fragility and vulnerability of college women…
Read More
The nation’s colleges and universities were already struggling financially even before the COVID-19 pandemic hit. Now, with a sudden shift to online schooling and students no longer on campus, a difficult situation has become dire. According to Christina Paxson, President of Brown University, “A lot of [colleges] were teetering on…
Read More
Private School’s Prerogative | Connecticut Law Tribune The Gunnery Incorporated ("The Gunnery") breached its contract with a student plaintiff by arbitrarily and capriciously expelling him without following its own rules set forth in its Disciplinary System, alleges a lawsuit filed on March 11, 2020, which was responded to by the defense…
Read More
An increasing number of universities have been offering online classes in recent years, but now due to the COVID-19 pandemic, virtual classrooms are the only classrooms. This has become the sudden necessary reality for every university in the country. With entire student bodies now taking classes and completing tests remotely,…
Read More
Title IX is a federal law that prohibits sex discrimination.Courts have consistently found that student-on-student sexual harassment is sex-based discrimination and that the university can be held responsible for it if the university remains “deliberately indifferent.” This means paying students damages if they are victimized on campus, but the University…
Read More
Samantha Harris is a graduate of Princeton University and the University of Pennsylvania Law School. For more than 15 years, she has advised students, faculty, administrators, and attorneys on issues of free speech and due process on campus. She lectures regularly about students' rights at campuses and conferences around the country and…
Read More
Education secretary Betsy DeVos has been in the news again—this time, calling for strengthening Title IX enforcement in K-12 schools as a response to increasing sexual misconduct and harassment allegations in elementary through high schools. DeVos’ office is particularly concerned about claims in which a teacher harassed or assaulted a…
Read More
In February 2019, three female Yale students, Anna McNeil ‘20, Ry Walker ‘20 and Ellie Singer ‘21, filed a lawsuit against Yale University, arguing that fraternities should be required to admit women and nonbinary students under Title IX as well as the Fair Housing Act. In May 2019, an on-campus…
Read More
Last week, the United States District Court for the Northern District of New York shot down Syracuse University’s attempt to dismiss the Complaint of “John Doe,” who sued the university for unfairly expelling him in 2017. This is a major victory for Allen Law LLC’s client, John Doe, who is…
Read More
The University of Connecticut expelled a male student for an allegedly nonconsensual sexual encounter with a female student. But now a judge has issued a temporary restraining order to halt the student's removal, on the grounds that the university's investigation was wildly unfair. The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education…
Read More
As reported in the Hartford Courant on Saturday, Attorney Michael Thad Allen of Allen Law LLC successfully argued in the District Court for the United States District of Connecticut that the University of Connecticut denied his client, identified only as John Doe, his constitutional rights to due process. The decision,…
Read More
HARTFORD, CONN. (AP) — A federal judge has issued a temporary order requiring the University of Connecticut to reinstate a male student who had been banned from campus for two years amid a sexual misconduct investigation. The student, referred to in court documents as John Doe, said in a lawsuit…
Read More
Case featured in Hartford Courant A federal court has delivered an early legal win to a UConn student whose claim that he was unfairly suspended for an alleged sexual assault could put the school’s system for investigating and punishing sexual misconduct on trial. U.S. District Judge Michael Shea issued a…
Read More
Case featured on Reason Magazine From Doe v. Univ. of Connecticut, decided Thursday by Judge Michael P. Shea (D. Conn.): This case challenges the fairness of disciplinary proceedings brought against Plaintiff John Doe by the University of Connecticut ("UCONN") for alleged sexual assault, culminating in the Plaintiff's two-year suspension from the…
Read More
A federal court in Connecticut handed the University of Connecticut a stinging rebuke yesterday, holding that the university likely violated an accused student’s due process rights when it ignored exculpatory evidence and prevented him from questioning witnesses in his sexual misconduct case. This is the second time in a week…
Read More
How broadly does the First Amendment’s free speech clause apply to students? This is a question that American courts have been interpreting for quite some time. Social media has made it more complicated. The First Amendment guarantees the right to free speech without government interference—with certain limits that are designed…
Read More
As medicinal and recreational cannabis is becoming legal in more and more states, students are under the assumption that they can use medical marijuana on campus. It’s a fair assumption, especially if your state has legalized both medical and recreational use. Except your school most likely disagrees. Its phalanx of…
Read More
The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals just reversed a lower court in a university plagiarism case against a disabled student. The school expelled a medical student over accusations of cheating. It ignored two doctors and the student’s own protests that the behavior he was accused of was a manifestation of…
Read More
Colleges are becoming a battleground in the conflict between federal and state marijuana laws as students who use medical pot challenge decades-old campus drug policies. In states where medical marijuana is legal, students disciplined for using it are taking their schools to court. College officials argue they could lose federal…
Read More
Colleges are becoming a battleground in the conflict between federal and state marijuana laws as students who use medical cannabis challenge decades-old campus drug policies. In states where medical cannabis is legal, students disciplined for using it are taking their schools to court. College officials argue they could lose federal…
Read More
Colleges across the US are being sued by former students who were expelled after testing positive for marijuana The students say they have medical cannabis cards and live in states where the drug is legal Medical marijuana is currently legal in 33 states and the District of Columbia Students are…
Read More
Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 forbids employers from discriminating based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin, and overlaps with Title IX (sex discrimination) and Title VI (race, color, religion or national origin). Forms of discrimination include creating a hostile work environment, disparate treatment, disparate…
Read More
Plaintiffs claiming they were wrongly expelled for false allegations of sexual misconduct in colleges and universities have repeatedly challenged so-called “trauma informed” interview techniques. Their challenges most often fail: three times in the Federal District Court of Colorado and once each in the Southern District Court of Iowa, the Southern…
Read More
If your employer or school punishes you for legally using marijuana, you can just say, “No.” No to discrimination against you under state medical marijuana statutes. States are increasingly edging towards the complete legalization of marijuana. Almost half have made medical marijuana legal. Some, including Connecticut, Rhode Island, and New…
Read More
When issues of gender discrimination arise in the school system, discussion of Title IX isn’t far behind. From athletics to classrooms and across other extracurricular departments, Title IX is a pivotal piece of legislation that protects your right to be free from gender discrimination. Title IX is part of the…
Read More
Here Are Three Take-Home Lessons for Campus Sexual Assault and Title IX Cases The American Bar Association rejected a proposal to incorporate “affirmative consent” into American criminal law. This decision has sparked debate over whether affirmative consent should become a legal standard in criminal law, raising questions about how to…
Read More
In a Cyberbullying attack, the aggressor’s objective is to harm the credibility of the victim and damage their psychological well being, but the Cyberbully’s aim is also more than personal. They seek to damage the reputation and social standing of the victim in the community at large. Cyberbullies are known…
Read More
Three Lessons For Victims Of Campus Sexual Assault In The Purdue University Case At the end of June as the dog days of summer began, a three-Judge panel, all women judges of the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals, ruled against Purdue University. The Appeals Court decided in favor of a male…
Read More
As a student at the university level, conduct is as important as academic excellence. While you are on your journey to becoming a professional and an adult, you may have found yourself in a situation that warrants learning more about student misconduct. Unfortunately, situations arise where a student fails to…
Read More
In February, a male swimmer from Fishers, Indiana was allowed to compete in the state swimming championship meet despite three accusations of sexual harassment by female members of his own swim team. At most high schools, boys’ and girls’ swimming teams practice together and compete at the same meets. But…
Read More
Federal Law Gives Your Student the Right to His or Her Student File Be aware of both your rights and their limitations under the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA). If you are familiar with FERPA in the context of grade school and high school, things change in college.…
Read More
Marshall University of West Virginia has settled a lawsuit with a former freshman student who alleged that the university’s Title IX judiciary bungled her complaint of a rape that occurred in her residence hall. A witness, also in the room, corroborated the student’s account that she withdrew consent by repeatedly…
Read More
A study conducted every three years by UCLA’s Higher Education Research Institute shows that professors throughout the United States are deeply concerned about discrimination and bias on campus. At the same time, the HERI survey shows that professors do not believe they are prepared to deal with these kinds of…
Read More
The University of Delaware hosted "Speech Limits in Public Life: At the Intersection of Free Speech and Hate" on March 15, 2019. This session features Timothy Shiell, Professor of Philosophy, University of Wisconsin – Stout; Rodney Smolla, Dean of Delaware Law School; Samantha Harris, Foundation for Individual Rights in Education…
Read More
Colleges and universities often walk a fine line when it comes to free speech. Institutes of higher education promote themselves as places where students go to debate and refine ideas and opinions. Ideally, this creates an enriching experience for all involved. But many schools place limits on acceptable discourse in…
Read More
The Attorneys General of 18 states collectively submitted an extensive 72-page comment opposing rules proposed by the Department of Education for Title IX, the federal statute prohibiting discrimination on the basis of sex in education. Led by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania (Josh Shapiro), California (Xavier Becerra), and New Jersey (Gurbir…
Read More
Allen Law LLC has sued Syracuse University on behalf of a graduate student following his expulsion for alleged sexual misconduct. The plaintiff, referred to anonymously as John Doe, claims the Title IX investigation was biased and that the sanctions imposed were unfair. Filed on Monday, Feb. 12, this is the…
Read More
Connecticut College has a unique Honor Code in which a select group of students disciplines their peers. However, a self-standing quasi-judiciary handles Title IX sexual misconduct violations under a separate system. College enrollment is just over 1,800 students. Despite this small student body, Conn College received 12 reports of rape,…
Read More
Campus judiciaries and campus codes of conduct intervene as never before in the private life of students. Therefore, parents should take the time to review how a school’s policies dictate the handling of misconduct cases. Universities and colleges today operate very differently from how they were run a few decades…
Read More
Arguments over statistics and Title IX are nothing new, but researchers rarely focus on what is effective in preventing sexual assault. Now a recent study by social scientists at Columbia University suggests an effective way to counter sexual assault on campus along with student misconduct policies and Title IX. The…
Read More
Before colleges or universities begin investigating a claim of sexual assault or other misconduct, they typically act to isolate the parties and, ideally, to protect them and the evidence during the investigation. These measures are usually called “interim measures.” Some schools call them “interim actions.” New regulations proposed by the…
Read More
The Friday before most college students headed home for Thanksgiving break (November 16, 2018), the Office for Civil Rights of the Department of Education released new regulations governing Title IX.[1] A draft of the proposed regulations had been released at the end of August, and bits and pieces of their…
Read More
Featured on NPR, this program aired on November 20, 2018. A narrower definition of sexual harassment, strengthening the rights of the accused. We’ll get reaction to Education Secretary Betsy DeVos’ proposed new regulations on campus sexual assault. Guests Katie Mangan, senior writer for the Chronicle of Higher Education. (@KatherineMangan) Samantha…
Read More
The Office for Civil Rights of the Department of Education released new regulations on November 16, 2018. Many of the new rules will likely increase the reliability of Title IX proceedings and should be welcomed by both the advocates of victims and the advocates for the rights of the accused.…
Read More
The University of Connecticut received 127 reports in 2017 of sexual assault, 67 cases of intimate partner violence, and 15 incidents of stalking. This amounts to 219 claims of Title IX violations, which are also considered civil rights issues under federal law. UConn expelled five students for Title IX violations…
Read More
On September 27, 2018, millions of Americans witnessed the testimonies of a man accused of sexual assault, Justice Brett Kavanaugh and his accuser, Dr. Christine Blasey Ford. The proceeding was similar to hearings that take place with increasing frequency at colleges and universities as a result of Title IX investigations.…
Read More