ASHE SCHOW: Sexual assault bill is back, and not much better than before.

Last week, a bipartisan group of senators reintroduced a campus sexual assault bill which, as I wrote last year, has some serious problems.

The Campus Accountability and Safety Act, which picked up two additional sponsors from last year’s version, purports to combat sexual violence. In reality, the bill fosters a campus climate where accused students are guilty until proven innocent.

The first bone of contention: The continued insistence by bill sponsors to call complainants “victims” before any evidence is compiled. At least they use the appropriate term “accused” (instead of “rapist”) for those on the other side, but the phrasing still shows bias toward a “guilty until proven innocent” mentality that has currently resulted in some 60 accused students suing their universities for unfair treatment.

This year’s version of the bill at least pays lip service to the notion of due process for what is actually a felony being adjudicated by campus administrators. The bill now includes the term “due process” three times, a 300 percent increase from last year’s bill, which included the term exactly zero times.

On page 31 of the bill’s 51 pages, due process gets its moment to flicker under a dark bridge.

The rest of it is basically hatred and fearful stereotyping of males. Plus:

Another troubling aspect included in the section about “support services” for the accuser is a requirement for schools to provide legal counseling. This would be a perfectly reasonable resource for schools to provide — if they were also provided to the accused student. This hints at further bias against students accused.

Remember, these students are being accused of felonies. This isn’t a disciplinary hearing for plagiarism, which can get a student expelled but not imprisoned. Documents and “evidence” included these proceedings can and will be turned over to prosecutors, should that be the next step. Universities, under political pressure, often ignore or explain away evidence provided by accused students and then find them guilty based solely on an accusation.

Note that Republicans Marco Rubio, Chuck Grassley, and Kelly Ayotte are on board with this, but are unable or unwilling to answer Schow’s questions.