Back to the Real Salt Lake Newsfeed

Ramesh Ponnuru: DeVos is protecting civil liberties on college campuses

Due process and free speech are not the first causes one associates with the Donald Trump administration.

The president has joked that the police should not "be too nice" to "thugs" and suggested that libel laws should be changed to punish newspapers for running "hit pieces." Yet Trump's Department of Education, led by Betsy DeVos, is taking steps to guard civil liberties. In an equal and opposite role reversal, the American Civil Liberties Union is protesting these steps.

During the Barack Obama administration, the department issued a letter encouraging colleges and universities to use an expansive definition of sexual harassment, and to lower the standard of proof required for allegations of sexual misconduct and assault.