Thursday roundup

Hans von Spakovsky at PJ Media reports on two universities, Colorado and Cincinnati, that are not going to comply with Betsy DeVos's rescinding of Obama's 2011 guidelines for standards required for turning a sexual-misconduct accusation into a conviction.  Those "standards" flew in the face of the basic right of an accused person to face his accuser. Would you send your kid to either of these schools knowing this?

 . . . the University of Colorado has refused to adopt [the new guidelines], announcing instead that it will stick to the discredited Obama-era rules.

The university’s Title IX coordinator, Valerie Simons, claimed their procedures provide accused students with a “prompt, equitable and fair process.” What Simons considers “equitable” and “fair” is a process, according to the school’s “Process and Procedures 2017-2018,” that does not allow the accused student to cross-examine the accuser or witnesses or allow his lawyer “to participate instead of the … respondent.”

A student doesn’t even get access to all of the evidence against him. His access is limited to a “Written Evidence Summary” prepared by a university official, leaving the student at the mercy of what university officials such as Valerie Simons consider relevant to the case. The university procedures don’t meet the most basic due process requirements as outlined in recommendations made by the American College of Trial Lawyers in a white paper the organization published on how to conduct campus sexual assault investigations.

The University of Cincinnati, meanwhile, has just lost a case that should scare any prospective students. In John Doe v. University of Cincinnati, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld an injunction issued against the university to prevent it from suspending a student for two years. The student, John Doe, had sex with Jane Roe at his apartment after meeting on Tinder and having communicated for several weeks. Three weeks later, Roe complained that Doe had sexually assaulted her. 

The University of Cincinnati’s rules are similar to those of the University of Colorado. Doe had no opportunity to question Roe, because she didn’t bother to show up for the campus tribunal’s hearing. He couldn’t even question any witnesses directly; an accused student can only submit written questions to the tribunal, which then decides whether the questions are “relevant and whether they will be posed to the witness.” Witnesses don’t even have to attend the hearing; they can just submit a notarized statement.
The only evidence in the case was the statements of John Doe and Jane Roe that directly contradicted each other.

Despite the lack of evidence and Roe’s failure to even appear, the university found Doe “responsible” for sexually assaulting Roe “based upon her previous hearsay statements to investigators.” Doe was suspended for two years. 

Fortunately, a federal district court judge ruled that Doe's basic rights as an accused person had been violated.

Of course, to broaden this to a cultural perspective, none of this would be an issue if these people would keep their pants zipped until marriage, or at least until they were committed to a steady sweetheart.

Kevin Williamson at NRO gives Mike Pence a swift kick in the tail end over the report that Pence's chief of staff, Nick Ayers, intends to "purge" Republican federal office-holders who aren't sufficiently on board with DJT's "agenda."

Poor Mike Pence. It’s not like his reputation was ever going to recover from his abject, boot-licking performance as Donald Trump’s vice president, but this is the sort of thinking that comes from his chief of staff? To say that Pence has not exhibited exemplary judgment over the past year and a half or so would be generous. Some people will endure any degradation to stand close to power, however fleeting.

Ouch!

And, of course, the piece includes the kind of exposure of Trump's fundamental emptiness that Williamson is uniquely equipped to provide:

Republicans have not rallied behind the Trump agenda because there isn’t anything to rally behind. The Trump movement is a one part personality cult and one part group-therapy session. It isn’t politics — it’s a nervous breakdown inside the Republican party.

And this:

Say this for Donald Trump: He has been successful at one thing — bringing American politics down to his level. It’s asinine, childish, and emotionally incontinent, but that is where he is comfortable. One recalls the proverbial advice about wrestling a pig: You both get dirty, but the pig likes it. 

The Vegas shooter's girlfriend still has some more 'splainin' to do. 

The Washington Examiner has a rather eye-opening report:

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, and Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin reportedly have forged a "suicide pact" in which all three members of President Trump's Cabinet would leave if one of them becomes a target of the president.

Speaking of people getting much-needed tail-end-kickings, David Harsanyi at The Federalist administers  one to Bret Stephens of the New York Times over perhaps the most idiotic - and overtly freedom-hating - opinion column of the last thousand years. And Stephens is ostensibly a conservative.

“I have never understood the conservative fetish for the Second Amendment,” writes The New York Times’ new-ish conservative columnist Bret Stephens today. Referring as a fetish to an inalienable right that has a longer and deeper historyamong English-speaking people than the right to free speech or the right to freedom of religion is an excellent indicator that someone probably hasn’t given the issue serious thought. Or maybe he’s just looking for hits. (Congrats.)

I mean, Stephens isn’t contending Americans shouldn’t own five AR-15s. He’s arguing that the state should be able to come to your house and take away your revolver or your shotgun or even your matchlock musket. Stephens might as well have written “Eww, guns take them away!” and left it that, but instead he offers debunked arguments and misleading statements that are likely borne out of the frustration of knowing his position is untenable.

"Fetish."
 Let that one sink in.