ASHE SCHOW: Lessons from the California court ruling campus sex assault hearing ‘unfair.’

The California ruling will most certainly be cited by lawyers for accused students in the future because it was the first time that a judge has declared that the process used to find a student responsible was “unfair.” Pressman ruled that the accused student wasn’t able to defend himself through meaningful cross-examination, as the questions he wanted to ask had to be approved by the hearing chair. Most of the accused students weren’t asked, even those dealing with relevant information like how the accuser acted after the alleged rape. When a question was asked, the accused student was given no opportunity to follow-up.

It is an issue that is prevalent across the U.S. when it comes to campus sexual assault hearings. Accused students are afforded extremely limited due process rights. This makes a mockery of the justice system. Students must pay for their own lawyers – if they’re even allowed to have one. The lawyer, if allowed to be present, cannot speak on the student’s behalf. Witnesses and evidence are disallowed on the whims of hearing panels set up by the university’s Title IX office, which is supposed to act as a victim’s advocate. Guilt, it seems, is assumed from the start.

So yes, Pressman’s ruling will be used to guide further discussion of campus sexual assault adjudication, as it should be. Colleges and universities need to read his ruling and see how fundamentally unfair it is to eviscerate due process for the purposes of appeasing political interests.

Indeed they do.