ACLU

ACLU Sues Betsy DeVos Over New Campus Sexual Assault Rules

The suit says Title IX changes will make it "more difficult for victims of sexual harassment or sexual assault to continue their educations"

Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos listens as U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a briefing on the coronavirus pandemic in the press briefing room of the White House on March 26, 2020 in Washington, D.C.
Drew Angerer/Getty Images

The American Civil Liberties Union has filed a lawsuit against the Education Department and Secretary Betsy DeVos over revised federal guidelines on how sexual assault allegations should be handled on college and K-12 campuses, claiming that the changes would "inflict significant harm" on victims and "dramatically undermine" their civil rights, NBC News reports.

Provisions in the new regulations bolster the rights of the accused and narrow the scope of cases colleges are required to investigate.

Advocates are concerned that students are "required to jump through hoops" to persuade their schools to even open investigations, Ria Tabacco Mar, director of the ACLU's Women's Rights Project, said Thursday.

The suit, filed Thursday on behalf of four advocacy groups for people who have been sexually assaulted, seeks to block the new provisions before they go into effect on Aug. 14.

Read the full story on NBCNews.com

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