Modern-day historians look back at the Soviet criminal system with a mixture of sorrow and disbelief. For example, Lavrentiy Beria, head of Stalin's secret police, often boasted, "Show me the man, and I'll show you the crime." Beria was bragging that he possessed a fearsome array of tools that could banish any political opponent to the gulag. An accusation became the legal equivalent of a conviction.
Decades later, a similar philosophy began to take hold on college campuses across the United States. For example, a lawsuit against Oberlin College in Ohio revealed that every male accused of a sexual peccadillo at that school was found responsible of the alleged offense.
These "kangaroo courts" were shut down in 2020, when a new due process regulation took effect, thanks to the intrepid efforts of former Department of Education Secretary Betsy DeVos. The regulation featured a variety of commonsense due process procedures such as impartial investigations, cross-examination, and the presumption of innocence.
But no surprise, presidential candidate Joe Biden vowed to put a "quick end" to the DeVos rule. That "quick end" happened yesterday, when the Department of Education released its draft Title IX regulation.
Since the Title IX law is designed to curb sex discrimination, heated debates had arisen about reworking the foundational word, "sex." In the draft regulation, the Biden administration settled on "sex" being expanded to include "sex stereotypes, sex characteristics, pregnancy or related conditions, sexual orientation, and gender identity."