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Court boosts rights of students accused of sexual misconduct
Court News |
2018/09/09 12:04
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Students accused of sexual misconduct at public universities have the right to cross-examine accusers at disciplinary hearings, a federal appeals court said Friday in a sweeping decision that will extend to public schools in four states.
The University of Michigan violated the rights of a male student by refusing to allow him or a representative to question witnesses in an alleged incident of sexual misconduct at a "Risky Business"-themed fraternity party, the court said.
A university investigator found insufficient evidence that a student had committed misconduct. But that conclusion was overturned by a campus appeals panel after two closed sessions.
The student, identified in court papers as John Doe, agreed to leave the school in 2016 instead of face expulsion, just 13.5 credits shy of getting a bachelor's degree in business. His attorney said he was made a "scapegoat" by the university to show that it was aggressively responding to complaints.
"If a public university has to choose between competing narratives to resolve a case, the university must give the accused student or his agent an opportunity to cross-examine the accuser and adverse witnesses in the presence of a neutral fact-finder," said Judge Amul Thapar, writing for a three-judge panel at the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
The court overturned a decision by U.S. District Judge David Lawson. The ruling is binding in Michigan, Ohio, Tennessee and Kentucky, the four states covered by the 6th Circuit.
"Providing Doe a hearing with the opportunity for cross-examination would have cost the university very little," Thapar wrote. "As it turns out, the university already provides for a hearing with cross-examination in all misconduct cases other than those involving sexual assault."
University spokesman Rick Fitzgerald said the decision was being reviewed.
"This is a very huge victory for the constitutional rights of students," Doe's attorney, Deborah Gordon, said. "Sexual-misconduct proceedings have to be a search for the truth. The University of Michigan, by hiding the ball from both sides, has really done a huge disservice to the entire issue of sexual misconduct on campus. The stakes are so high."
It's unclear what will happen next. But Gordon said her client, who had a 3.94 grade-point average, wants his college degree. |
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Senate begins final day of Supreme Court nominee hearings
U.S. Court News |
2018/09/07 12:06
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Senators began the fourth and final day of hearings for Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh on Friday, but with the nominee finished answering questions the day they seemed unlikely to alter his path to confirmation.
Senate Democrats worked into the night Thursday in a last, ferocious attempt to paint Kavanaugh as a foe of abortion rights and a likely defender of President Donald Trump. But after two marathon days in the witness chair in a Senate hearing room, Kavanaugh appeared on his way to becoming the court's 114th justice.
The 53-year-old appellate judge stuck to a well-rehearsed script throughout his testimony, providing only glimpses of his judicial stances while avoiding any serious mistakes that might jeopardize his confirmation. In what almost seemed like a celebration Thursday, Kavanaugh's two daughters returned to the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing room for the final hours of testimony, accompanied by teammates on Catholic school basketball teams their father has coached.
On the schedule Friday are more than two dozen witnesses on both sides of the nomination fight. Democratic witnesses include John Dean, Richard Nixon's White House counsel who cooperated with prosecutors during the Watergate investigation, and Rochelle Garza, the legal guardian for a pregnant immigrant teenager whose quest for an abortion Kavanaugh would have delayed last year.
On the Republican side, former solicitors general Theodore Olson and Paul Clement will testify in support of the nominee, along with former students, law clerks and the mother of a basketball player Kavanaugh coached.
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Parkland survivor urges Congress to reject Trump court pick
Legal Opinions |
2018/09/07 12:04
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A student who survived the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, is urging senators to reject the confirmation of Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh.
The student, Aalayah Eastmond, says that if Kavanaugh doesn't have the decency to shake hands with the father of a shooting victim, he shouldn't be able to "make life-changing decisions" affecting real people.
She is referring to Fred Guttenberg, who tried to shake hands with Kavanaugh earlier in the week. Guttenberg's daughter, Jamie, died in the February 2018 attack at the high school.
Guttenberg extended his hand Kavanaugh, but the judge did not. A White House spokesman said security intervened before Kavanaugh could take his hand.
Kavanaugh this week told senators he's "very aware of the real-world consequences" of gun violence. |
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Court: Cities can't prosecute people for sleeping on streets
Legal News |
2018/09/06 03:54
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Cities can't prosecute people for sleeping on the streets if they have nowhere else to go because it amounts to cruel and unusual punishment, which is unconstitutional, a federal appeals court said Tuesday.
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals sided with six homeless people from Boise, Idaho, who sued the city in 2009 over a local ordinance that banned sleeping in public spaces. The ruling could affect several other cities across the U.S. West that have similar laws.
It comes as many places across the West Coast are struggling with homelessness brought on by rising housing costs and income inequality.
When the Boise lawsuit was filed, attorneys for the homeless residents said as many as 4,500 people didn't have a place to sleep in Idaho's capital city and homeless shelters only had about 700 available beds or mats. The case bounced back and forth in the courts for years, and Boise modified its rules in 2014 to say homeless people couldn't be prosecuted for sleeping outside when shelters were full.
But that didn't solve the problem, the attorneys said, because Boise's shelters limit the number of days that homeless residents can stay. Two of the city's three shelters also require some form of religious participation for some programs, making those shelters unsuitable for people with different beliefs, the homeless residents said.
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