Governor Brown's Moment of Reason (May He Have Many More!)

A most unusual event recently happened in Sacramento,
California's capital city; some would even call it a miracle.
Governor Jerry Brown, the state's archliberal governor,
vetoed a bill which would have codified former President
Obama's policies regarding campus sexual assault.

In 2011, the Obama regime issued the infamous "Dear
Colleague" guidance, which ordered the nation's universities
to create Title IX "courts" under the threat of their losing
federal funds. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos is
working to replace this monstrosity with a new regulatory
code which restores and protects due process, clamping
down on political correctness-based witch hunts.

The solidly Democrat-held legislature passed a law that
explicitly protects the Obama-era guidelines, making
adherence a condition of receiving financial assistance,
according to the bill's sponsor state Senator Hannah-Beth
Jackson. Gov. Brown, who actually shares Secretary DeVos'
concerns in regards, stated in a letter accompanying his veto:
"Thoughtful legal minds have increasingly questioned whether
federal and state actions to prevent and redress sexual harassment
and assault --- well-intentioned as they are --- have also
unintentionally resulted in some college's failure to uphold
due process for accused students."

Gov. Brown went on to say that accused students must be granted
"the presumption of innocence until the facts speak otherwise"and
warned that "depriving any student of higher education opportunities
should not be done lightly, or out of fear of losing state or federal
funding" and added that "we have no insight (into) whether there is
disproportionate impact on race or ethnicity." Truer words on this
subject have never been spoken, especially by someone on the
political correctness-worshipping Left.

It is most surprising, refreshing, and gladdening to see a prominent
government official of the liberal political persuasion stand for the
rule of law, and the Golden Thread of Justice which is woven
through it, the latter stating that an accused person is innocent until
proven guilty, and that the accused must have an fair and impartial
trial. Although he has left his comrades in the legislature scratching
their heads and asking plaintively "Whose side is Gov. Brown on?",
it is quite clear that, at least in this instance, California's governor is
on the side of justice. What a concept for the Left to fathom.


MEM