GUILTY UNTIL PROVEN INNOCENT: REP. POLIS O.K. WITH EXPELLING INNOCENT STUDENTS [VIDEO]. As Glenn mentioned earlier today, Congress held a hearing yesterday on “Preventing and Responding to Sexual Assault on College Campuses.” FIRE’s Legislative and Policy Director, Joe Cohn, testified about the importance of preserving the due process rights of accused students during investigations of campus sexual assault.

During an exchange with Joe, Representative Jared Polis (D-CO) suggested that the “preponderance of the evidence” standard—which requires only that fact-finders be 50.01 percent certain in order to find an accused student guilty—may be too high of a bar for campus sexual assault cases. Though Glenn already posted this quote, it bears repeating: “If there are 10 people who have been accused, and under a reasonable likelihood standard maybe one or two did it, it seems better to get rid of all 10 people.” [Emphasis added.]

So I guess Sir Blackstone had it wrong with his formulation that “It is better that ten guilty persons escape than that one innocent suffer.” It seems the new logic is “better kick ten out rather than that one (or maybe two) run free.”

What’s funny about all this is FIRE’s radical position is that we’d like to see rapists go to jail, not prey on girls at the community college down the road or at the local bar. But, yes, you should be pretty sure they are actually guilty.

You can watch this exchange in the video below, and check out FIRE’s coverage over at The Torch.