US Department of Education office for Civil Rights is out of control’ with new guidance on Title IX enforcement
Washington, DC – The House Judiciary Committee’s Task Force on Executive Overreach will hold a hearing today examining the delegation of regulatory authority to an unaccountable bureaucracy. As the federal government has grown, so has the burdensome rule-making by unelected officials.
“Legislating through guidance” results in “enforcement by mandate” and the threat of funding loss for statute violations.
Gail Heriot, a law professor at the University of San Diego School of Law and a member of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, will testify on the overreach by the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) in areas such as sexual assault on campus and the transgender use of bathroom, shower and locker room facilities.
In her testimony, Heriot states that, “OCR is out of control…OCR officials have shown again and again that they’re not interested in what the statutes they’re charged with enforcing really say. They are pushing their own agenda.” Heriot explained that Title IX prohibits sex discrimination by federally funded schools and authorizes separate toilet, locker room and bathroom facilities based on “actual sex, not the sex we desire to be.”
Heriot questions the connection between OCR’s Sexual Violence Guidance and Title IX. OCR is “simply imposing its own policy preferences in the name of enforcing Title IX” with the new requirement that universities to change the burden of proof used in college disciplinary proceedings from “clear and convincing” to “preponderance of evidence,” thereby undermining the rights of the accused.
Heriot is the author of numerous articles and essays on civil rights law and a founding member of the New American Civil Rights Project (NACPR). The NACPR is a group of present and former members and staff of the United States Commission on Civil Rights and its state advisory committees who share a commitment to limited government and to equal protection under the laws. The NACRP is not affiliated with the Commission in any way.
New American Civil Rights Project Contact: Audrey Mullen, 202-270-2772