Will: Resistance to executive overreach

The civil rights office has sent its own letters to, among other targets, colleges and universities, concerning, among other topics, sexual harassment and violence. These letters, Lankford notes in his letter, although purporting to offer mere “guidance,” clearly are intended to intimidate schools with the implied threat of “inquiry, investigation, adverse finding, or rescission of federal funding.” Furthermore, Lankford says, they fail to identify “precise governing statutory or regulatory language” that empowers the office to micromanage institutions’ disciplinary practices. 

The office is insisting on practices discordant with constitutional values. These practices include denying persons accused of sexual assault the right to confront accusers, and subjecting the accused to convictions based on a mere “preponderance of evidence” rather than “clear and convincing” evidence.

In an October 2014 letter to The Boston Globe, 28 Harvard Law School faculty members voiced “strong objections” to the offices’s diktats: “As teachers responsible for educating our students about due process of law, the substantive law governing discrimination and violence, appropriate administrative decision-making, and the rule of law generally, we find the new sexual harassment policy inconsistent with many of the most basic principles we teach.” 

Accusing Harvard of “jettisoning balance and fairness in the rush to appease certain federal administration officials,” the professors said: “Harvard has adopted procedures for deciding cases of alleged sexual misconduct which lack the most basic elements of fairness and due process, are overwhelmingly stacked against the accused, and are in no way required by Title IX law or regulation.”

Sixteen University of Pennsylvania law professors have expressed similar concerns. As have two members of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, who note “a disturbing pattern of disregard for the rule of law at OCR,” including: defining “perfectly legal conduct as unlawful” (e.g., “telling sexual or dirty jokes” and displaying “sexually explicit drawings”) and squandering resources “to address violations it has made up out of thin air.” 

Recently, the civil rights office, oblivious or indifferent to such learned reproaches, replied to Lankford, saying: It’s “guidance” letters do not have the force of law — a distinction without a difference because the letters construe statutes and regulations that have such force. And: The “preponderance of evidence” evidentiary standard is proper because many schools already are using it. 

Furthermore, the office says it must initiate proceedings against an institution “in front of a neutral independent department hearing officer.” So, the department monitors itself neutrally and independently. Lankford will soon use congressional hearings to acquaint the office with how unpersuaded he is. 

The civil rights office and the EPA, representative tentacles of this lawless administration, are inadvertently serving constitutional values by arousing the resistance of rival branches. Madison’s Newtonian system can still stymie Wilson.