Russlyn Ali Steps Down From Civil Rights Post at the Department of Education

Russlyn H. Ali has stepped down from her post as assistant secretary for civil rights at the U.S. Department of Education. She was confirmed by the U.S. Senate for the position on May 1, 2009.

During her tenure, the Office for Civil Rights focused more on complaints of discrimination than had been the case in the Bush administration. Her office also issued new guidance for how colleges and universities should respond to incidents of sexual assault.

Prior to joining the Department of Education in 2009, Ali served as vice president of the Education Trust and as founding director of Education Trust-West. She has also taught at the University of Southern California Law Center and the University of California at Davis.

Ali attended Spelman College in Atlanta but transferred to American University in Washington, D.C., where she earned a bachelor’s degree in law and society. She is also a graduate of the Northwestern University School of Law.

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12 COMMENTS

  1. I am sorry to hear that she has left this post. But she has made a tremendous impact on the position in the enforcement of laws against discrimination. She has raised the bar for the next appointee to this position.

    • She disgraced herself by her April 4 2011 letter demanding that schools eliminate 3 or more safeguards of justice, the standard of proof, the right to confront ones witnesses, and double jeopardy. She also suggests an odd mix of civil and criminal procedure that she apparently invented herself, allowing an accuser to change their story after reviewing an alibi! She told schools to lower the standard of proof for charges of any sexual harassment to just 51%, and remove procedural process protection based on her reasoning that it was too important for safety not to do it. In the history of law, there is a consistent thread, all justice is procedural.
      When will we see someone in govermnent try to decrease their own power?
      Increases in power are almost always justified with the reason of “safety.” Search for the shameful letter with these terms: Ali dear colleague letter.
      Read the whole letter, not just summaries on the web. It includes the shocking suggestion that an accused student not be allowed to question the accuser unless they have hired their own attorney. Sadly, I doubt that Ali is a fan of history and wanted to emulate the Star Chamber, but is just uneducated as well as power hungry and/or evil. And allowing a rebuffed accuser to be able to appeal as well is a violation of double jeopardy. Strong evidence that either something went wrong when Ali was given a law degree, or that she doesn’t care about the history of law as a tool of oppression. I agree “she has made a tremendous impact on the position in the enforcement of laws against discrimination.” Now, sadly, there will not be a repealing of the previous damage she has done, as she probably gave the OCR more power before this final excessive power grab, and they won’t give it up.

  2. This is what happens when you put communists in charge of your country. I hope people wake up soon, this would be a very bad direction for the free-est country in the world

    • I can see that, but is might not be the only explanation. I’m not sure Communists would have engaged in this an affront to freedom so openly. Communists always have to justify their work as supporting “the workers control the means of production.” Ali probably just wanted more power. Power hunger does not need any reason. I would also like to suggest that socialists might be in power. The best definition I have found for socialism is “government direction of privately owned corporations.” Here, Ali is directing all colleges, so that fits too, What is surprising, is that the people who supported her “dear colleague” letter have not been fired from their positions. Just having a person in a college who did not immediately criticize the letter for its attack on justice will be an effective way to show a jury that a college refused to provide due process to a plaintiff student. Great to see that people are still discussing how Ms Ali damaged the Free World.

  3. Well people are probably looking at Ms. Ali now in 2017 with Betsy I’m charge and saying ” how did America trade (Ms. Ali) a lawyer in for our kids with this very uneducated and unenlightened girl from Michigan, aka Betsy D”
    So I guess that’s what makes America great, being a billionaire with zero education to contribute to the Convo.
    Can’t wait to see what we are looking like in 2018 with this group of misfit toys running the country.

    Just hope people who voted these people in are happy with being fooled..It’s a shame. But people wanted this.

    • I did “vote these people in” and I was not fooled. I continue to hope that Betsy DeVos rescinds the incredibly destructive letter authored by Ali. I don’t know DeVos’s background, but she appears to be motivated by compassion. Ali was clearly motivated by hate. I’ll take compassion over hate every time.
      I can only surmise that Ali has no children and therefore doesn’t understand or care what she has done to damage innocent students attending colleges these days. I hope that damage can and will be reversed. That relief can’t come soon enough…. over a hundred lawsuits around the country and counting… all because of one angry, hateful, power-hungry charlatan.

    • Really can’t compare Betsy, who has done nothing, to Ali, who did a great deal of damage to the colleges.

  4. Ali continues to try to do damage, she is still working against due process for accused men on college campuses – I have many complaints against Trump and know nothing about Betsy Devos but she will have to be very bad to be worse than someone who wants to throw out due process, and do it by edict when that was not in her power – the Dear Colleague letter was not an administrative action within the purview of her job – it was not even an accurate statement of case law – it was more like a legal brief that misstated the law to serve her aims, but claimed it stated the law accurately , and worked because of the threat of withdrawal of funding – at least we don’t have to fear that kind of attack by Trump’s people – they may do other things that are quite bad – but not that.

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