'DeVos should call this The Biden Standard': US Civil Rights Commission chair's criticism of Trump admin's Title IX changes overheats hypocrisy & irony detectors

Doug P. | 1:15 PM on May 06, 2020

The Trump administration has finalized changes to campus sexual assault policies:

The Trump administration released new guidelines Wednesday for how universities and K-12 schools should handle complaints of sexual assault and misconduct as part of a contentious overhaul that Education Secretary Betsy DeVos launched in 2017.

Now, under reworked federal rules, alleged student perpetrators will have added protections, including the presumption that they are innocent throughout the disciplinary process and the right to be provided all evidence collected against them. Those students can also cross-examine their accusers and vice versa during live hearings, although it must be done through a lawyer or representative.

Here’s another way to look at it:

DeVos is restoring due process. https://t.co/OtYIQfbfHZ

— Christina Sommers ? (@CHSommers) May 6, 2020

However, the chair of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights thinks there are too many “rights” being acknowledged in what DeVos is doing:

.⁦@BetsyDeVosED⁩ presides over taking us back to the bad old days, that predate my birth, when it was permissible to rape and sexually harass students with impunity. Today’s students deserve better, including fair protections consistent with law https://t.co/Kxn5teeYnE

— Catherine E. Lhamon (@CatherineLhamon) May 6, 2020

The piece to which @CatherineLhamon links notes that “under the new rules, college students accused of sexual assault and harassment must be given the right to a live hearing and the ability to cross-examine their accusers.” She says this gives permission to “rape with impunity.”

— Charles C. W. Cooke (@charlescwcooke) May 6, 2020

It is unclear why this crime leads to these conclusions but others do not. After all, we can’t have people murdering or carjacking or stealing with impunity, so why not abolish the Fifth Amendment? That the chair of a civil rights board is making this argument is beyond satire.

— Charles C. W. Cooke (@charlescwcooke) May 6, 2020

Another way of looking at this is that Betsy DeVos is changing the Title IX rules from the ones that Joe Biden liked before he was accused of sexual assault to the ones that Joe Biden demands now that he has been accused of sexual assault.

— Charles C. W. Cooke (@charlescwcooke) May 6, 2020

Here’s a great idea for DeVos to consider:

DeVos should call this the 'Biden standard'.

— Pradheep J. Shanker (@Neoavatara) May 6, 2020

Bingo!

Joe Biden and Democrats oppose this despite begging for more due process over Biden’s own sexual assault allegations. #LiberalHypocrisy #TaraReadeBlackout

— Nick (@NickAtNight128) May 6, 2020

There’s no hypocrisy like DNC hypocrisy!

Apparently the only way for college kids to have their right to due process recognized by progressives would be to run for and win the Democratic nomination for president https://t.co/nZpoVSyHgo

— Rich Lowry (@RichLowry) May 6, 2020