President Joe Biden's nominee to head the civil rights division of the Department of Education argues that Title IX regulations protecting due process allows students to "rape and sexually harass students with impunity."
The Biden administration is weighing whether to roll back the Trump-era Title IX regulations, but nominee Catherine Lhamon testified Tuesday she would uphold requirement of due process until they it can be reformed to allow schools to expel students based on accusations.
The Trump administration enacted the regulations in 2020 to ensure due process rights, so that if a student was accused of sexual assault or misconduct, the college would be required to hold hearings and allow cross-examination of accusers and witnesses.
The move was made after the Obama administration's 2011 guidance made it easier for colleges and universities to expel students on the basis of allegations and accusations.
Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., questioned Lhamon in the Senate confirmation hearing Tuesday about her criticism of the regulations put in place by former President Donald Trump's education secretary, Betsy DeVos, who sought to preserve constitutional protections of due process after the Obama guidance, she said, "often stacked the deck against the accused."
"Do you think as if the law, the way it is implemented, that it has given the right to rape and sexually harass with impunity?" Cassidy reportedly asked.
Lhamon asserted that the Trump administration weakened Title IX, a 1972 law barring discrimination based on sex in education.
"I think what I said in the tweet, the regulation permits students to rape and sexually harass with impunity," she responded. "I think that the regulation has weakened the intent of Title IX that Congress wrote."
Despite that, Lhamon still vowed to enforce the regulation under civil rights law, despite her personal views, Fox News reported.
"So even though the law says that it gives permission to rape and sexually harass with impunity, you would enforce that law?" Cassidy further asked, according to the report.
"Yes," Lhamon answered.
The Trump regulations permit attorney cross-examination of the accuser without the accused being in the room, but critics say that such questioning could be traumatic and possibly deter victims from coming forward.
Eric Mack ✉
Eric Mack has been a writer and editor at Newsmax since 2016. He is a 1998 Syracuse University journalism graduate and a New York Press Association award-winning writer.
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