Title IX religious exemption is being challenged by class action lawsuit
[W]hile the statutory religious exemption to Title IX may permit, or even require, the Department to refuse assistance to sexual and gender minority students like the Plaintiffs, the Constitution forbids such inaction.” Hunter v. U.S. Department of Education, Complaint ¶6.
Title IX has long had an exemption for religious institutions, which was put in place to protect religious rights under the First Amendment. That exemption is now coming under fire. In Hunter v. U.S. Department of Education, the Religious Exemption Accountability Project filed a class action lawsuit on March 29, 2021, in the United States District Court for the District of Oregon seeking to invalidate Title IX’s religious exemption as unconstitutional. Read more >>
Unjust enrichment claims in tuition refund class actions: No pain, no gain, no claim
The outbreak of COVID-19 tuition refund class actions is as virulent as the pandemic that inspired them. In just one week, the number of tuition refund class actions against colleges and universities nearly doubled from 60 to 105, most bearing an uncanny similarity to those that preceded them. Their main complaint is that the innovative transition from live to online learning necessitated by campus closures in response to the nationwide civil shutdown orders deprived students of the benefit of their bargain: live instruction in a diverse campus community. Read More >>
Tuition refund class actions: The latest COVID-19 casualty
Nowhere is the COVID-19 virus mutating more quickly than in the cozy confines of class action litigation. From business interruption, to gym memberships, to disappointed Airbnb hosts, more and more Americans are turning to Rule 23 to recover losses that are as unprecedented as they were unpredictable.
The halls of higher education have not been spared. On March 27, 2020, the first college tuition refund class action lawsuit was filed in a federal district court in Arizona. The second suit came 12 days later in a federal district court in South Carolina. Since then, at least 60 class actions have been filed in federal and state courts across the country, and more are coming. Read More >>