ASHE SCHOW: Lack of campus due process could one day help an actual rapist.

Due process for college students has been in the news lately, as judge after judge makes favorable rulings for students accused of sexual assault.

Naturally, those outraged over the supposed epidemic of campus sexual assault claim that due process is an impediment to justice. An accusation is as good as guilt, some activists seemingly believe.

But accused students who feel they have been wrongly vilified are fighting back, by suing the universities that expelled them and treated them as guilty from the start. They’re claiming a lack of due process protections.

For instance, most colleges and universities don’t allow the accused or accuser to have legal representation (some schools allow a lawyer to sit in but not speak), many schools don’t even provide students with an explanation of the charges against them, or allow the accused to cross-examine his accuser. No testimony in campus courts is given under oath, yet the transcripts and evidence can be turned over to police afterward.

The accused students who are now suing are presenting evidence they believe exonerates them. The judges that have ruled favorably have acknowledged that they are not re-adjudicating the case but determining whether a “reasonable person would necessarily draw a different conclusion from the record.”

In many cases, much of the evidence boils down to he said/she said, which brings up a frightening question: What happens if an actual rapist sues the school for a lack of due process and wins?

Well, one big protection against that eventuality is that they don’t seem to be going after actual rapists. So we’ve got that going for us.