Just in: On the third consecutive 29th of the month, another sweeping Appeals Court ruling for an acc'd student: this time from CA9 (unexpectedly), in @ASU case.
CA9 becomes third circuit to adopt plaintiff-friendly CA7 Purdue pleading standard for acc'd student TIX lawsuits.
Opinion begins by noting outside pressure--Dear Colleague letter, OCR investigation--though notes that pleading error by acc'd student's former counsel precludes it from considering the former issue.
Court notes procedural oddities of the lawsuit itself--which ended in appointment of pro bono counsel (Aaron Block) who did a remarkable job for acc'd student.
Court cites statistical evidence--even of a very general variety--as relevant to the consideration, esp. in an area where firm stats can be elusive. Only CA10 (Denver) has explicitly rejected this sort of argument.
"There is," the court notes, "no heightened pleading standard for Title IX claims." Rejects ASU argument that acc'd student needed more specificity at the pleading stage given the cumulative nature of the allegations.
CA9: procedural irregularities in TIX case can support an inference of gender bias.
In ASU case, the issue was alleged breach of confidentiality in the process in which an ASU professor ( @seagertp) allegedly spoke about the preliminary outcome of the case to students.
Court also suggests ASU officials discouraging acc'd student from filing a complaint against the accuser (who he had alleged was harassing *him*) supports an inference of gender bias.
And in some remarkably broad language, CA9 concludes that allegations of ASU's "onesided investigation support an inference of gender bias."
Unanimous opinion, from Judge Milan Smith (W. Bush nominee), is below. Judges Wardlaw (Clinton) and Bumatay (Trump) joined.
https://kcjohnson.files.wordpress.com/2020/07/schwake-v.-asu-ca9.pdf
You can follow @kcjohnson9.
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