Categories
Title IX

Biden Title IX Take Over Threatens Due Process, The Most Fundamental Legal Right

Biden Title IX Take Over Threatens Due Process, The Most Fundamental Legal Right

Teresa R. Manning

Policy Director, National Association of Scholars

Hello everyone. My name is Teresa R. Manning, Policy Director at the National Association of Scholars & author of its 2020 Report, Dear Colleague: The Weaponization of Title IX, which advocates fundamental fairness in education, also known as DUE PROCESS.

DUE PROCESS refers to the “basket of rights” that protects ALL of us, especially in our legal system. These rights particularly protect the lone individual up against powerful institutions like GOVERNMENT and SCHOOLS.

DUE PROCESS includes the presumption of innocence, the right to see evidence and the right to impartial decision-makers.

DUE PROCESS is probably the most important legal development EVER.

It ensures that legal hearings are not witch trials, not star chambers, and not kangaroo courts. It is the jewel in the crown of Western law.

But DUE PROCESS is now under attack by the Biden Education Department.

Biden’s proposed Title IX Rule to govern sex discrimination complaints in schools, including allegations of sexual misconduct, would return to the bad old days of the “single investigator” INQUISITION, where one school official holds “individual meetings” to decide guilt or innocence instead of a formal hearing with due process protections like cross examination & the right to submit & refute evidence.

My 2020 Dear Colleague Report found that school officials are not only overwhelmingly ideological, with backgrounds in things like “women’s studies, but they have virtually no courtroom experience where due process protections are put into practice.

This means that Title IX officials don’t really know due process, understand due process or value due process.

These ideologues are not just in the Title IX office; they basically run American higher education. They’re angry at biological realities like the differences between men and women and the more serious consequences of sexual relations for women. So they are waging war on biological reality: They attack sex roles and they attack men – with campus kangaroo courts where innocent male students are branded sex offenders because basic due process, including the right to defend oneself, was lacking.

Fortunately, real courts have pushed back on this Title IX totalitarianism: Hundreds of courts have ruled against schools and in favor of the wrongly accused under Title IX.

A SHOW DOWN IS COMING BETWEEN THE BIDEN ADMINISTRATION & THE COURTS

Courts are insisting that schools observe due process, including the right to impartial decision makers, something Bident’s “individual meeting” INQUISITION method lacks.

The Biden people are not only ignoring this case law but they are also ignoring case law on how to define sexual harassment that triggers Title IX, as well as case law on the limits of agency action.

The 1999 Supreme Court decision of Davis v. Monroe County Board of Education insists that sexual misconduct be “severe, pervasive & objectively offensive” such that educational access is denied, to trigger Title IX. But the Biden proposal defies the Davis case, expanding the definition of sexual harassment to include “subjective evaluation” of conduct, which eviscerates the Supreme Court’s required objective standard.

The Supreme Court also just found that executive agencies like the Environmental Protection Agency – or the Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights! – cannot hide behind  redefinitions to decide “major questions” making policy, a function that falls only to Congress.

Yet that is precisely what the Biden people are doing in Title IX, by expansively re-defining not just sexual harassment but the word “sex” itself to include gender ideology and same sex orientation.

THIS ACTIVIST, AGENCY OVERREACH & ATTACK ON DUE PROCESS WILL NOT STAND.

The National Association of Scholars stands with the 140 organizations opposed to Biden’s Title IX Takeover as well as with the 15 state attorneys general who are right now suing the Biden people for their lawlessness. We urge everyone to HELP PROTECT DUE PROCESS: OPPOSE BIDEN’S PROPOSED TITLE IX RULE. 

Public Comments can be made here.

Note: This presentation was made at the Stop the Title IX Take-Over rally on August 11.

Categories
Title IX

Democrats Embrace Sex Change for Kids

Democrats Embrace Sex Change for Kids

Jon Schweppe

Good morning everyone.

Well, we know the Left loves to lie to people’s faces and take a bad thing and pretend that it’s a good thing. We saw this just the other day – half a trillion dollars in new spending, and what do they call it? The Inflation Reduction Act. Absolutely ridiculous. We know this on other issues, too. Abortion – tearing an infant limb from limb – what do they call that? Reproductive health care. And here we have another issue where the Left is just lying to our faces. They call what they’re doing to children – they call it “gender-affirming care.”

But “care” is a real misnomer, isn’t it? Because what we’re talking about – what they’re doing to kids here – is giving puberty blockers to kids as young as 8, cross-sex hormones to kids as young as 14, sex change surgeries – double mastectomies for young teenagers, fifteen years old – it’s absolutely Nazi Germany stuff, and we’re doing it right here in the United States.

This is being pushed – unfortunately it’s not just the activist Left, it’s not just our politicians although the Biden Administration is obsessed with this – but it’s being pushed by all parts of our society, culture, institutions, medical professionals, the education system, certainly corporations, Big Pharma stands to make a lot. You know, a lot of people don’t realize this with these cross-sex hormones, but once you start on a regimen, you’re on it for life. That’s hundreds of dollars, probably thousands of dollars over the course of a year, and Big Pharma is standing to profit from that.

Part of the problem here is that this is so widespread across our culture that there’s really only one way to stop it, and it’s politics. We have a real problem on our hands because Republicans are weak. They’re not very good on this issue.

We have some that have been really good, we have to give them credit. Senator Marshall from Kansas, as soon as he got into office, introduced a bill to try to push back against this stuff. LaMalfa, Jim Banks, both on the House side have been good. Rand Paul, we know him from his hearing with Rachel Levine, where his first two words in the hearing were “genital mutilation,” so you have to give him credit for that. Tom Cotton has been good as well.

But the reality is that Republicans have not, while they have on an issue like women’s sports, they haven’t quite put this as a top issue, where they’re talking about it, where they’re expressing outrage about what’s happening. We have to change that.

Polls show we’re winning – we’re actually crushing the Left on this issue. APP did a poll on this recently and we’re at like 58 percent of people agreeing that we shouldn’t do this to children. When we actually compared that to the Left’s argument, where the Left is saying this is life-saving treatment and all these kids are going to kill themselves, we actually made that comparison, and our numbers went up. So the American people are against this. They think it’s outrageous. But we’re not doing anything about it. So we have to give credit: we have state legislation that’s passing. That’s good. We need to pass the SAFE Act in every single state. I think we have legislation in five states right now where we’re actually getting some stuff done on this. But this has to be a priority. This really is the moral issue of our time.

And so call your Member of Congress, call your Senator, demand that this is a priority, that they fight against sex changes for kids, it’s wrong, it’s unAmerican, and we won’t stand for it.

Thank you so much.

Note: This presentation was made at the August 11 Stop the Title IX Take-Over Rally in Washington, DC.

Categories
Title IX

The Family Is the Greatest Resource Ever Given to Our Nation Under the Natural Law – Not Title IX Law

The Family Is the Greatest Resource Ever Given to Our Nation Under the Natural Law – Not Title IX Law

Frank J. Nice

Our nation’s greatest resource is the family.  The best form of government is the smallest government.  The smallest of government is the family.   It does not matter to what political party our family belongs, what religion our family practices, what ethnic ancestry our family comes from, or what color our family is.

We know that we need strong families with loving and caring parents. Parents and family members know what is best for their families to thrive.  We do not need elected officials curbing and taking over our God-given parental rights and responsibilities.  We need elected leaders to ask us what they can do to help us once again have strong families. We need elected officials who will support children’s growth in the family with entitlements that respect the birth sex of our children.  We need to protect our God-given children, especially our daughters, from sex discrimination and abuse that forces our children to share locker rooms and bathrooms with those of the opposite sex and forces them to compete in sports against much stronger transgenders.

Government leaders need to give parents the dignity they have earned and deserve. Dignity is the quality of being worthy of honor and respect. We give dignity to parents by honoring and focusing on the diversity and beauty of families and by allowing children to grow and mature under the leadership of their fathers and mothers. We need to prevent any policy or law that takes away the dignity of the family to give privileges and entitlements, instead, to those who promote sex based on non-birth sex orientation, gender identity, sex stereotypes, and sex characteristics. We need to prevent destroying our already fragile families by those who take away parents’ rights to raise their children under the Natural Law, not under Title IX Law.

I am the father of six children and grandfather of eleven grandchildren. The government must not be allowed to take away my dignity as the father of my children and thus the dignity of my children. Our elected leaders must once again return dignity to our greatest resource, our families, over and above any issue that destroys our families by giving honor to less worthy causes, such as the draft Title IX regulation. You, dad; you, mom; you, children; you, grandparents are the resources given to our leaders to prosper us and to provide for the common good of our precious families and society. It is not about being a Democrat leader or being a Republican leader; it is about being a Family leader.

Any “reformation” of Title IX will have an impact on the family. We must not allow Title IX to fundamentally transform our families where parental rights, roles, and responsibilities are transferred to and replaced by the State. These rights, roles, and responsibilities include only parents defining the sex of their children, preventing gender experimentation on their children, having due process in all sex-related issues, and restricting sexually oriented curricula to their children under the protection of free, not mandated, speech for parents and students. Only God has the right to change the character of families.

Note: This presentation was made at the Stop the Title IX Take-Over rally on August 11.

 

 

Categories
Title IX

The Woke Has Poked Mama Bear

The Woke Has Poked Mama Bear

Tabitha Walter, Executive Director

Eagle Forum

It’s so great to see so many people advocating for the present and future of our country! I’m honored to stand up here with amazing leaders from across the country who are advocating for truth.

I’m Tabitha Walter and I’m the Executive Director of Eagle Forum. I’m also a mom of two toddlers and I want to share why that means something regarding the new Title IX regulations. A little over four years ago, I found out through a blood test that the baby in my belly was a boy. That evening I attended a Fairfax school board meeting to oppose their new school curriculum that taught kids lies about their gender and bodies. I told them that my son’s sex wasn’t chosen for him; it was rooted in his biological DNA. I didn’t want my little boy believing that he was born in the wrong body especially because of something he learned at school.

Yet, we have an administration that is pushing that on our kids beginning in elementary school and telling them to hide it from their parents. Title IX redefines “sex” to include gender ideology. This means that biological boys who claim to be girls can help themselves to girls’ bathrooms and locker rooms and compete unfairly against girls. This also means that radical gender ideology curriculums have an open door into schools beginning as young as kindergarten.

While all of this is being implemented, teachers and school administrators have no obligation to inform parents. Even if a child changes their pronouns, openly questions their gender, or requests to be called by a different name, school officials have no obligation to inform the parents of what is happening at school. In fact, teachers have more protections under the new Title IX regulations if they encourage students to hide their feelings from their parents and if they push them toward puberty blockers or other body altering procedures.

I’m truly concerned about my daughter’s future. Will she ever have a chance to be a top athlete or even have the motivation to try her best if boys are dominating her sport? Will she be safe in her own bathroom at school? Will she be told that she isn’t really a “she” and that her beautiful characteristics are ugly or unimportant? Not under my watch!

The Department of Education’s rewritten Title IX regulation would erase 50 years of progress for girls and women. Regardless of what the Biden administration says, this mama bear is going to know what my children are learning, who they are sharing private spaces with, and that they can be confident in the body that God created for them.

When I stood in front of that school board, I didn’t have children who were old enough to attend public school in that district. There were parents attending who homeschooled their children or sent their kids to private school. Their voices were just as important. YOUR voices are just as important. Why? Because these are the children who will be leading our country one day. THEY will make decisions for YOUR children one day. We don’t just fight for now. We fight for the future! Thank you!

Note: This speech was presented at the Stop the Title IX Take-Over rally on August 11.

Categories
Due Process Office for Civil Rights Title IX

Over 140 Organizations Opposed to Biden Title IX Plan Launch Advocacy Network

PRESS RELEASE

Rebecca Stewart: 513-479-3335

Email: info@saveservices.org

Over 140 Organizations Opposed to Biden Title IX Plan Launch Advocacy Network

WASHINGTON / August 10, 2022 – In the wake of growing criticisms of Joe Biden’s Title IX proposal by over 140 organizations, a “Title IX Network” has been established (1). The Network will advocate for a variety of changes at the national, state, and local levels to reverse the harmful effects of flawed Title IX policies that have been implemented in recent years.

These far-reaching policies relate to the areas of due process, free speech, women’s sports, bathroom privacy, parental rights, and gender experimentation. More information on each of these topics is available on the SAVE website (2).

Bipartisan criticisms of the Biden proposal have ballooned in recent weeks. The disapprovals have been issued by lawmakers, attorneys general, and others (3). To date, 62 editorials critical of the proposal have been published (4).

Most recently, three feminist professors published an editorial claiming the Title IX regulation’s mandatory reporting provision “will only make things worse.” (5)  Then, 15 Republican governors issued a Joint Letter that charges, “your Administration proposed changes that misunderstand the purpose of Title IX, which was to prevent discrimination ‘on the basis of sex’ in education programs.” (6)

To date, 147 organizations have come out in opposition to the Title IX plan (7). A rally is being held in Washington, DC on August 11 to call on the Department of Education to disavow its plan to move forward with its Title IX proposal (8).

Citations:

  1. https://www.saveservices.org/2022-policy/network/
  2. https://www.saveservices.org/camp/weaponization/
  3. https://www.saveservices.org/2022/08/assailed-from-the-right-and-the-left-biden-gender-identity-proposals-face-mounting-opposition/
  4. https://www.saveservices.org/2022-policy/
  5. https://www.chronicle.com/article/mandatory-reporting-is-exactly-not-what-victims-need?cid=gen_sign_in
  6. https://www.rga.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/Joint-Letter-to-President-Biden-opposing-reinterpretation-of-Title-IX-7.27.2022-new.pdf
  7. https://www.saveservices.org/2022-policy/
  8. https://www.saveservices.org/2022-policy/rally/
Categories
Civil Rights Title IX

A Black Mom Explains How the Civil Rights Movement Was Hijacked to Allow Men in Girl’s Bathrooms

A Black Mom Explains How the Civil Rights Movement Was Hijacked to Allow Men in Girl’s Bathrooms

Deborah Owens

August 9, 2022

My name is Deborah Owens, and I am the mom of two young children who I refuse to allow to be targeted for indoctrination about gender identity.

I’m also the executive director of the Coalition of Americans for Action and Principles – at least, that’s our name now. Formerly, we were known as the Coalition of African American Pastors, but we changed that name to reflect our wider membership and our priorities.

Yes – while the Left is obsessing about racial identity, there are some of us who still believe that principle and character trump everything.

Our organization really rose to prominence during the fight for traditional marriage. That was when we saw the beginnings of a worrisome trend that has now completely taken over our national discourse.

I’m talking about the LGBT hijacking of the civil rights movement.

Let me tell you a little about the Founder of CAAP, my husband, Rev. Bill Owens.

Bill first became politically active during the civil rights movement  – the REAL civil rights movement.

You see, Bill grew up in Tennessee in the days of Jim Crow, when segregation was still the norm. He worked hard to get an education, and during his college days, became involved with the fight for racial equality.

In those days, they trained civil rights marchers to endure the abuse of others and turn the other cheek – even when faced with violence.

Bill marched with Dr. King and other legends of the civil rights movement. Like his contemporaries, he was inspired by the principles of freedom and democracy. He loved our country and wanted to make it better.

You know what he did not march for?

He didn’t march for gay marriage. And he definitely didn’t march so that a biological man could use a woman’s locker room or compete in women’s sports and call it “equality.”

Over the past several decades, a terrible thing has happened in our country. The Left has hijacked the civil rights movement and used it to promote an agenda that is about special treatment, promiscuity, and gender ideology.

And you know what? We let it happen.

Because they did this in the name of “civil rights” and “equality” and “love”, too few of us were afraid to speak up and stop it.

Of course, there are exceptions.

Like the pastors in Houston who stood up against a lefist mayor who threatened to silence them for organizing against a transgender bathroom bill. CAAP was there to help defend the pastors and the First Amendment.

In fact, we have been involved in this issue since the beginning, organizing boycotts against companies that embraced transgender bathrooms (like Target) and those that tried to bully cities into adopting transgender policies (like Paypal – to this day, I still don’t have a Paypal account because of their bully tactics).

Unfortunately, too many people are still cowed by that false title: “civil rights”

Let me ask you – is it “civil rights” to counsel young children about gender identity in school, even instructing teachers to use the kids’ “preferred pronouns or names” over a parent’s objection?

Is it “civil rights” to promote puberty blockers, surgery, and irreversible medical treatments for minors based on vague ideas about “gender identity”?

Is it “civil rights” to allow a biological man to take women’s sports’ scholarships or compete against female athletes?

No.

None of this has anything to do with rights or equality. It is a politically-driven effort to override biology with a fringe ideology.

And it is destroying our culture.

Even now, you will find educated professionals and influential policymakers who will refuse to tell you what the definition of a “woman” is.

That’s right, a question a 2-year-old could answer can stump a justice of the Supreme Court.

And this is all because the left has hijacked the mantle of civil rights.

Let me tell you: it’s time to take that title back.

Let’s take back civil rights in the name of every parent who has the right to oversee their child’s education and pass on their values.

Let’s take it back for our first amendment freedom to follow Biblical teachings on marriage and family … and to speak the truth about what a woman is.

And let’s take back the title of civil rights for the women who are being pushed back into secondary status by men who call themselves female. Not for the feminists who helped get us into this mess, but for our daughters, sisters, and granddaughters who will suffer as a result.

This our new civil rights movement, and like the men and women who marched for racial equality in the 50s and 60s, we will do it for the love of our country. Because we believe in America and what it stands for. And we want to save it for those generations to come.

Note: This speech was prepared for presentation at the Stop the Title IX Take-Over rally, held in Washington DC on August 11, 2022.

Categories
Gender Identity Office for Civil Rights Press Release

DHHS’ Rachel Levine Must Retract Dishonest Claims About ‘Safe’ Puberty-Blockers, Or Face Calls for Resignation

PRESS RELEASE

Rebecca Stewart: 513-479-3335

Email: info@saveservices.org

DHHS’ Rachel Levine Must Retract Dishonest Claims About ‘Safe’ Puberty-Blockers, Or Face Calls for Resignation

WASHINGTON / August 3, 2022 – The FDA issued a warning on July 1 regarding puberty blockers, alerting doctors to the serious risks of GnRH drugs that can cause brain swelling, loss of vision, and other serious disorders (1). Despite this fact, U.S. Assistant Secretary for Health Rachel Levine has continued to tout the benefits of “gender-affirming care,” which includes the administration of puberty blockers to children and youth.

In a July 19 tweet, Levine claimed that some medical groups assert that “gender-affirming care is medically necessary, safe, and effective for transgender and non-binary children and adolescents.” (2) Each of these assertions is false:

Medically Necessary: The vast majority of youth who question their gender identity eventually come to accept their biological sex (3).

Safe: The FDA warns that doctors need to monitor patients taking puberty-blockers for “signs and symptoms of pseudotumor cerebri, including headache, papilledema, blurred or loss of vision, diplopia, pain behind the eye or pain with eye movement, tinnitus, dizziness, and nausea.” (1)

Effective: Dr. Michelle Cretella has written in the Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons, “There is not a single large, randomized, controlled study that documents the alleged benefits and potential harms to gender-dysphoric children from pubertal suppression.” (4)

In a second statement posted on July 27, Levine stated emphatically that “gender-affirming care is lifesaving, medically necessary, age appropriate, and a critical tool for health care providers.” (5)

In response, former Democratic presidential candidate Tulsi Gabbard charged the Biden Administration with promoting “child abuse” by endorsing gender-affirming care (6).

A rally will be held in Washington, DC on August 11 calling on President Biden to disavow his gender identity campaign (7).

According to a recent UCLA report, 1.4% of all youth ages 13-17 self-identify as transgender (8).

Citations:

  1. https://aap2.silverchair-cdn.com/aap2/content_public/autogen-pdf/cms/20636/20636.pdf
  2. https://twitter.com/HHS_ASH/status/1549505624727322628
  3. https://genderresourceguide.com/wp-content/themes/genderresource/library/documents/NPRGFullDocumentPrintV17.pdf
  4. https://www.jpands.org/vol21no2/cretella.pdf
  5. https://twitter.com/MaryMargOlohan/status/1552282926838054912?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1552282926838054912%7Ctwgr%5E8abee86d2ed44d8618a70264b17a6cef35d836d3%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nationalreview.com%2Fcorner%2Fasserted-without-evidence%2F
  6. https://www.ntd.com/tulsi-gabbard-says-biden-admin-promoting-child-abuse-by-pushing-gender-affirming-care_818370.html
  7. https://www.saveservices.org/2022-policy/rally/
  8. https://williamsinstitute.law.ucla.edu/publications/trans-adults-united-states/

 

Categories
Campus Department of Education Due Process Office for Civil Rights Press Release Sexual Assault Sexual Harassment Title IX

Assailed from the Right and the Left, Biden ‘Gender Identity’ Proposals Face Mounting Opposition

PRESS RELEASE

Rebecca Stewart: 513-479-3335

Email: info@saveservices.org

Assailed from the Right and the Left, Biden ‘Gender Identity’ Proposals Face Mounting Opposition

WASHINGTON / August 1, 2022 – Criticisms of the Biden “gender identity” proposals have increased in recent days. The disapprovals have been issued by liberals and conservatives, federal lawmakers, state governors, attorneys general, and others.

These criticisms have multiplied and intensified over the past two weeks:

July 21: Twenty U.S. senators wrote a letter to President Biden charging his Title IX proposal would return colleges to a “deeply flawed disciplinary process.” (1)

July 22: Three feminist professors published an editorial in the Chronicle of Higher Education claiming the Title IX regulation’s mandatory reporting provision is a “violation of adult autonomy” and saying the proposal “will only make things worse.” (2)

July 26: Twenty-two Attorneys General filed a 17-count lawsuit against the United States Department of Agriculture seeking to block its plan to withhold school lunch funding from schools that do not comply with Biden’s gender identity agenda (3).

July 26: Former President Trump issued a strongly worded statement describing the Biden gender identity proposals as the “perverted sexualization of minor children.” (4)

July 27: Fifteen Republican governors released a joint letter to President Biden vowing, “our states will have no choice but to pursue avenues to redress any harm that is done to our children as a result” of any reinterpretation of Title IX (5).

July 27: The Catholic News Service described a recently proposed DHHS regulation on transgender services as posing an “existential threat to religious-based employers.” (6)

July 30: Bari Weiss’ Common Sense published an article, “The Beginning of the End of ‘Gender-Affirming Care’?” documenting how several liberal-leaning European countries are now reining in their gender transitioning initiatives (7).

The Biden Title IX proposal is deeply flawed because it would harm due process, free speech, women’s sports, bathroom privacy, and parental rights; and would expand the practice of gender experimentation (8).

To date, nearly 140 organizations have come out in opposition to the Title IX plan (9). A rally will be held in Washington, DC on August 11 to call on the Department of Education to disavow its plan to move forward with its Title IX proposal (10).

According to a recent UCLA report, 1.4% of all youth ages 13-17 self-identify as transgender (11).

Citations:

  1. https://www.wicker.senate.gov/2022/7/wicker-hyde-smith-oppose-biden-s-flawed-title-ix-proposal-urge-extension-of-public-comment-period
  2. https://www.chronicle.com/article/mandatory-reporting-is-exactly-not-what-victims-need?cid=gen_sign_in
  3. https://www.tn.gov/content/dam/tn/attorneygeneral/documents/pr/2022/pr22-24-complaint.pdf
  4. https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2022/07/26/trump_sickos_pushing_sexual_content_in_kindergarten_is_a_hallmark_of_cultural_decay.html
  5. https://www.rga.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/Joint-Letter-to-President-Biden-opposing-reinterpretation-of-Title-IX-7.27.2022-new.pdf
  6. https://catholicnews.com/hhs-proposes-health-care-rule-on-abortion-transgender-services/
  7. https://www.commonsense.news/p/the-beginning-of-the-end-of-gender?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email
  8. https://www.saveservices.org/camp/weaponization/
  9. https://www.saveservices.org/2022-policy/
  10. https://www.saveservices.org/2022-policy/rally/
  11. https://williamsinstitute.law.ucla.edu/publications/trans-adults-united-states/

 

Categories
Campus Department of Education Due Process Free Speech Office for Civil Rights Title IX

SAVE Commends 21 Senators Who Criticized ‘Lawless’ Title IX Proposal

PRESS RELEASE

Rebecca Stewart: 513-479-3335

Email: info@saveservices.org

SAVE Commends 21 Senators Who Criticized ‘Lawless’ Title IX Proposal

WASHINGTON / July 26, 2022 – SAVE applauds the 21 Republican senators who recently sent the Department of Education a letter that is critical of its Title IX proposal (1). The communication notes, “the new proposed rule encourages institutions to adopt processes that have either been struck down or been viewed skeptically by multiple courts.”

The letter was signed by Senators Richard Burr (N.C.), Roger Wicker (Miss.), Cindy Hyde-Smith (Miss.), John Barrasso (Wyo.), John Boozman (Ark.), Mike Braun (Ind.), Bill Cassidy (La.), Tom Cotton (Ark.), Kevin Cramer (N.D.), Ted Cruz (Texas), Steve Daines (Mont.), Joni Ernst (Iowa), James Inhofe (Okla.), James Lankford (Okla.), Cynthia Lummis (Wyo.), Roger Marshall (Kan.), Marco Rubio (Fla.), Rick Scott (Fla.), Tim Scott (S.C.), Thom Tillis (N.C.), and Tommy Tuberville (Ala).

SAVE regards the Title IX proposal as “lawless” because it seeks to effectively overturn the decisions of hundreds of trial and appellate court judges, a milestone Supreme Court decision, and explicit congressional intent:

Due Process: Hundreds of judicial decisions against universities, of which 175 are summarized in a recent SAVE analysis (2), provide for a series of due process rights to accused students, including impartial investigations, prior review of evidence, and hearings with cross-examination. Unfortunately, the proposed Department of Education rule seeks to remove these constitutionally-based rights.

Definition of Sexual Harassment: The regulatory proposal seeks to negate the Supreme Court’s 1999 Davis v. Monroe definition of sexual harassment as conduct that is “severe, pervasive, and objectively offensive” (3). Specifically, the Department of Education proposes a dramatic and unwieldy expansion of sexual harassment to be, “conduct that is sufficiently severe or pervasive, that, based on the totality of the circumstances and evaluated subjectively and objectively, denies or limits a person’s ability to participate” in their education.”

Definition of Sex: The draft regulation seeks to redefine the word “sex” to include “gender identity.” This would serve to erase congressional intent as reflected in the original Title IX law. Federal Judge Kim Gibson has opined, “On a plain reading of the statute, the term ‘on the basis of sex’ in Title IX means nothing more than male and female….It is within the province of Congress—and not this Court—to identify those classifications which are statutorily prohibited.” (4)

Under the American system of government, the Executive branch is charged with carrying out the laws that are enacted by Congress. The Department of Education’s attempt to redefine “sex” represents an arrogant usurpation of the prerogatives and rights of the Legislative branch.

To date, 130 organizations and 58 editorials have expressed opposition to the Title IX plan (5). A rally will be held in Washington, DC on August 11 to highlight these concerns, and to call on the Department of Education to abandon its plans to move forward with its Title IX proposal (6).

Citations:

  1. https://www.wicker.senate.gov/2022/7/wicker-hyde-smith-oppose-biden-s-flawed-title-ix-proposal-urge-extension-of-public-comment-period
  2. https://www.saveservices.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/Analysis-of-Title-IX-Regulation-3.24.2022.pdf
  3. https://www.oyez.org/cases/1998/97-843
  4. https://casetext.com/case/johnston-v-univ-of-pittsburgh-of-the-commonwealth-sys-of-higher-educ
  5. https://www.saveservices.org/2022-policy/
  6. https://www.saveservices.org/2022-policy/rally/
Categories
Campus Due Process Free Speech Office for Civil Rights Press Release Restraining Order Sexual Harassment Title IX

Three Judicial Decisions Spotlight Flaws of Biden Title IX Plan. SAVE Urges Lawmakers to Not Remain Silent.

PRESS RELEASE

Rebecca Stewart: 513-479-3335

Email: info@saveservices.org

Three Judicial Decisions Spotlight Flaws of Biden Title IX Plan. SAVE Urges Lawmakers to Not Remain Silent.

WASHINGTON / July 25, 2022 – Three judicial decisions handed down in the past month reveal major problems with the proposed Title IX policy that was recently released by the Department of Education (1). Over 130 organizations around the country have come out in opposition to the plan (2). SAVE urges lawmakers to speak out strongly against the Biden proposal.

The three judicial decisions highlight the harmful effects of the Title IX proposal on free speech, women’s sports, and due process.

  1. Free Speech

On June 30, the District Court of Idaho handed down a decision against the University of Idaho in favor of three Christian law students who had objected to Title IX “no contact orders” that were issued against them (3). The orders had been issued only because the students had offered to engage in a respectful conversation about biblical teachings of marriage and sexuality. In the ruling, Judge David Nye noted that the university’s actions, “were designed to repress specific speech.”

The decision highlights the fact that the Department of Education is proposing a sweeping re-definition of sexual harassment that many believe will interfere with the exercise of free speech (4).

  1. Women’s Sports

On July 15, Judge Charles Atchley of the Eastern District Court of Tennessee ordered the U.S. Department of Education to cease its unlawful enforcement of a directive allowing transgender athletes to participate in women’s sports (5).

The decision is timely because the proposed Title IX regulation would expand the definition of “sex” to include “gender identity,” opening the door to wider participation of transgenders in women’s sports. In response, federal lawmakers of both parties have issued statements condemning the policy’s harmful effects on female athletics (6).

  1. Due Process

Last Wednesday, Judge CJ Williams of the District Court of Northern Iowa issued a sweeping decision against Fordt University. The court noted widespread procedural irregularities including not informing the accused student of his rights, bias by the Title IX Coordinator, and the shredding of documents by school officials (7). The decision was one of the most sweeping Title IX rulings issued in the past decade.

Similar irregularities would be encouraged by the Biden plan, which removes a student’s right to a number of fundamental due process protections such as impartial investigations and cross-examination (8).

A more detailed analysis of the free speech, women’s sports, and due process concerns raised by the Biden Title IX proposal is available online (9). Even though the federal Title IX law was enacted to curb sex discrimination in schools, many believe the recent Title IX proposal will actually worsen these problems (10).

A rally will be held in Washington, DC on August 11 to highlight these concerns, and to call on the Department of Education to abandon its plans to move forward with the Title IX proposal (11).

Citations:

  1. https://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ocr/docs/t9nprm.pdf
  2. https://www.saveservices.org/2022-policy/
  3. https://adfmedialegalfiles.blob.core.windows.net/files/PerlotMPIorder.pdf
  4. https://www.thefire.org/proposed-title-ix-regulations-would-roll-back-essential-free-speech-due-process-protections-for-college-students/
  5. https://adfmedialegalfiles.blob.core.windows.net/files/TennesseeOrderOpinionPI.pdf
  6. https://www.saveservices.org/2022-policy/
  7. https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.iand.56248/gov.uscourts.iand.56248.72.0.pdf
  8. https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2022/07/will_biden_bring_back_kangaroo_courts_at_the_university.html
  9. https://www.saveservices.org/camp/weaponization/
  10. https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/columnist/2022/07/09/new-biden-title-ix-rule-may-erase-students-due-process-rights/10007312002/?gnt-cfr=1
  11. https://www.saveservices.org/2022-policy/rally/