Weaponizing Title IX to Punish Speech

The Supreme Court has held that serious sexual harassment sometimes constitutes discrimination. But federal anti-discrimination law has never been a federal code of civility. It doesn’t ban any and all “offensive” speech, even when that speech is sexually charged or related to sex or sex roles. (Essentially, an employer or school is liable for sexual harassment only where it has created or tacitly condoned an environment that denies opportunities on the basis of sex.)

Despite this, activists have for decades weaponized Title IX, the law that prohibits sex discrimination in education, in order to police and silence politically incorrect speech.