Education Law

Suit claims Harvard admissions policy discriminates against Asian-Americans; is DOJ investigating?

The U.S. Justice Department may be investigating a 2015 administrative complaint contending Harvard University discriminates against Asian-Americans in undergraduate admissions. The complaint, filed by a coalition of 64 Asian-American associations, was dismissed by the U.S. Department of Education because of a pending lawsuit alleging similar discrimination, the Harvard Crimson reports.…

Aug 3, 2017 9:29 AM CDT

Justice Department to challenge universities over alleged discrimination against whites

Updated: The U.S. Justice Department is looking in-house for lawyers to work on a project challenging universities over affirmative action policies believed to discriminate against whites. An internal memo seeks lawyers for “investigations and possible litigation related to intentional race-based discrimination in college and university admissions,” the New York Times…

Aug 2, 2017 8:10 AM CDT

Dept. of Ed seeks to toss ABA suit on loan forgiveness, says nothing final till 10 years of payments

The U.S. Education Department is seeking to toss an American Bar Association lawsuit over lawyers dropped from the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program by arguing that the ABA sued too soon.

Aug 1, 2017 2:59 PM CDT

Missing paperwork could wipe out billions in private student loan debt

One of the largest owners of private student loans is struggling to show it has the necessary paperwork to prove ownership of loans that have gone into collection.

Tens of thousands of people whose loans are held by National Collegiate Student Loan Trusts could have their debts wiped out because of the missing paperwork, the New York Times DealBook blog reports.

Jul 18, 2017 9:58 AM CDT

Law prof’s exam question on Brazilian wax is deemed harassment; is academic freedom threatened?

A Howard University law professor says academics everywhere should be concerned by his school’s response to a 2015 exam question about a Brazilian bikini wax. The school determined in May that the question by Professor Reginald Robinson constituted sexual harassment under school policy, report Law.com (sub. req.) and Inside Higher…

Jul 10, 2017 4:05 PM CDT

18 states and DC sue Betsy DeVos over delayed rules designed to protect student borrowers

Attorneys general for 18 states and Washington, D.C., have filed a federal lawsuit against Education Secretary Betsy DeVos for delaying new rules designed to help protect student borrowers who are defrauded by colleges.

Jul 6, 2017 3:45 PM CDT

Lawyer says he missed deposition because email notice went to his junk folder

A Wisconsin lawyer has informed a federal court that he and his client missed a June 6 deposition because the email notice went to the lawyer’s junk email folder. Stan Davis of the Madison-based Davis Group argues that dismissal of his client’s suit against the University of Wisconsin is too…

Jul 5, 2017 9:42 AM CDT

Yale appeals decision forbidding designation of more gender-neutral bathrooms in law building

Updated: Yale Law School wants to make its single-user restrooms gender-neutral. But to meet Connecticut building code, it must have a certain number of bathrooms designated and assigned by sex. The state’s deputy building inspector refused the law school’s request for a code modification in December, and the finding was…

Jun 27, 2017 5:21 PM CDT

ABA task force recommends due process protections in campus sexual assault investigations

Both the accused and the accuser should have due process protections when colleges and universities resolve allegations of campus misconduct, according to a report by an ABA task force.

Both parties should receive written notice before a formal investigation begins, both parties should be allowed to participate in an investigation, both parties should be allowed to review a school’s initial investigative report and to respond to the final report, and both parties should have a right to appeal, according to the report (PDF) by the ABA Criminal Justice Section’s Task Force on College Due Process Rights and Victim Protection.

Jun 27, 2017 7:00 AM CDT

7th Circuit upholds injunction allowing transgender teen to use the boys’ restroom

A transgender high school senior in Wisconsin, who wanted to use the boys’ restroom, has demonstrated a likelihood of success that the Kenosha Unified School District violated the teen’s constitutional rights and federal education law, a federal appeals court has ruled. In a decision on Tuesday, the Chicago-based 7th U.S.…

May 30, 2017 2:57 PM CDT

ABA seeks summary judgment in suit over lawyers dropped from loan forgiveness program

The ABA filed a motion for summary judgment on Wednesday in its lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Education for its decision to drop some lawyers from the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program.

May 25, 2017 8:50 AM CDT

Suit blames teen’s suicide on scared-straight interrogation for sex-encounter recording

The parents of a suburban Chicago teen have filed a lawsuit blaming their son’s suicide on an 18-minute interrogation conducted by a police officer and dean at his high school in Naperville, Illinois. The suit (PDF) says 16-year-old Corey Walgren jumped to his death from the fifth floor of a…

May 25, 2017 7:00 AM CDT

Lawsuit alleges Mississippi deprives black children of equal educational opportunities

The Southern Poverty Law Center has sued the state of Mississippi, alleging it’s systematically failing to fund schools in majority-black areas, The Associated Press and the Washington Post reported Tuesday. Four mothers of children in elementary schools are the lead plaintiffs in a lawsuit that turns on an 1870 law…

May 23, 2017 4:41 PM CDT

How a Chinese-American family challenged school segregation in 1920s Mississippi (podcast)

Almost 30 years before Linda Brown and her parents took on the Topeka Board of Education in Brown v. Board of Education, Martha Lum’s parents Jeu Gong and Katherine sued to try to stop Rosedale, Mississippi, from barring their Chinese-American children from the local “white” school. Their case, Gong Lum…

May 17, 2017 8:41 AM CDT

Advocacy group says Title IX lawsuits from young men are on the rise

Between 1990 and 2010, only 15 lawsuits alleged that colleges and universities violated students’ due process rights during sexual assault investigations. Since 2011, there have been 150 such lawsuits, the Washington Post reported Friday. Those numbers were provided by Title IX For All, a group that advocates for the rights…

May 1, 2017 7:00 AM CDT