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Sex Discrimination

Lawsuit Against Virginia Tech Alleging Anti-Male Bias in Title IX Proceedings Can Go Forward in Part

“Johnny has alleged abundant facts that, if true, raise grave concerns about the way VT, through these administrators, conducted the investigations of Pauline’s and Jane’s sexual-assault claims, as well as the ultimate outcomes of those inquiries. Simply put, Johnny has alleged facts that, if true, raise a plausible inference the VT discriminated against him in these investigations because he is male and, in so doing, violated Title IX.”

Eugene Volokh | 5.21.2026 2:28 PM

An excerpt from today's long decision by Judge Thomas Cullen (W.D. Va.) in Doe v. Va. Polytechnic Inst. & State Univ.:

In the fall of 2024, Plaintiff John Doe ("Johnny"), then a student at Virginia Tech ("VT" or "the university") and member of its Corps of Cadets, was accused by two female students of sexual assault.

Johnny's first accuser, Pauline Poe, with whom he previously had at least two consensual sexual encounters, claimed that Johnny had continued to engage in sexual intercourse with her after she withdrew consent. A couple weeks later, Jane Roe, a fellow member of the Corps of Cadets, complained that Johnny, with whom she had previously been intimate, had sex with her after a night of heavy (underage) drinking. Jane, who claimed to have no memory of this encounter, later alleged that it amounted to sexual assault on Johnny's part because she was incapacitated.

After receiving these two complaints, VT officials sprang into action. The same day that Jane reported Johnny to VT's Title IX office—over five weeks after their allegedly non-consensual encounter—the university issued a campus-wide alert about the purported sexual assault. VT's email did not identify Johnny or Jane by name, but it provided the specific location of the alleged incident and noted that the parties involved knew each other. Although no one from the Title IX office had yet to investigate Jane's claims—let alone get Johnny's side of the story—the campus-wide email characterized him as "the offender" and Jane as "the survivor." The following day, a VT official placed Johnny on interim suspension, which resulted in his being evicted from his dorm room, pending the outcome of separate Title IX and........

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