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New York Legislators Should Reject Governor’s Campus Sex Assault Bill

As the New York legislative session comes to a close this week, Governor Andrew Cuomo is pushing legislators to pass his well-intentioned but deeply flawed campus sexual assault legislation.

I wrote an op-ed for the Albany Times Union explaining why legislators should reject the plan, which includes an “affirmative consent” requirement. As I explain in the piece:

The bill requires campus judiciaries to find students accused of sexual assault guilty unless the student can convince a campus court that he or she obtained ongoing and affirmative consent. But proving one’s innocence of accusations of sexual assault—allegations that typically concern misconduct occurring behind closed doors, without witnesses, and often under the influence of intoxicants—is practically impossible.

Flipping the burden of proof in campus sexual assault cases onto the accused isn’t the only unfair aspect of the proposed legislation. To learn more about why legislators should deny the bill, please read the full piece.

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