Stanford information temporary in opposition to ongoing TDX lawsuit

Stanford submitted a quick within the Santa Clara County courtroom on Friday, Could 19 opposing the Theta Delta Chi (TDX) Chapter at Stanford’s petition for writ of mandate: a authorized order issued by a courtroom that on this case tells the College to reverse the removing of the fraternity on campus.

Stanford’s temporary argues that the TDX group that filed the lawsuit lacks standing to sue. The temporary additional argues that the College sanctions on TDX weren’t extreme and in the end asks the courtroom to dismiss the petition for writ of mandate based mostly on these arguments. 

The temporary, which is Stanford’s first temporary filed within the TDX case, is available in response to a quick submitted by the TDX chapter at Stanford. 

The native TDX chapter’s temporary, a petition for writ of mandate, is spearheaded by the non-Stanford affiliated alumni group #SaveStanfordTDX (SSTDX). SSTDX, who employed the lawyer, claims to be suing on behalf of the native Stanford TDX chapter. Nonetheless, in Stanford’s temporary, the College argues that SSTDX doesn’t have a adequate authorized curiosity or proper to say that they’re suing on behalf of the native chapter. 

SSTDX has constantly argued inside their marketing campaign that Stanford’s sanctions in opposition to TDX following the demise of fraternity member Eitan Weiner had been extreme and overly harsh. 

The College declined to touch upon the importance of the case or if the College is actively gathering extra proof in its inner investigation of the Weiner case, writing “we can not remark or speculate on lively authorized instances.” 

“Stanford is dedicated to scholar security and selling protected environments the place all college students can flourish,” College spokesperson Dee Mostofi wrote.

SSTDX’s April 23 lawsuit in opposition to Stanford comes after the College eliminated TDX from campus in 2021 following a College investigation that discovered three violations of the Elementary Customary. The investigation of TDX was associated to Weiner’s demise in January 2020 from an unintentional fentanyl overdose. 

In a separate lawsuit, the Weiner household sued Stanford final yr for Weiner’s wrongful demise, alleging negligence in opposition to the College.

Not like the Weiner household case, TDX filed a writ of mandate, a procedural lawsuit. As outlined within the TDX temporary, the chapter desires Stanford to reverse its resolution to take away the fraternity, lifting the suspension and probably reinstating the campus fraternity home. 

In Stanford’s temporary arguing that the group petitioning for reinstatement doesn’t have standing to sue, the College’s attorneys claimed that the “Petitioner” — referring to SSTDX — “is a small group of alumni … and never the Native TDX Chapter (and even scholar members of that Chapter).” 

In line with the College’s temporary, solely the native TDX chapter and the coed members concerned within the removing of the home in 2021 have standing to sue. Additional, Stanford’s temporary claims that neither SSTDX or the native TDX chapter have standing to carry this mandamus motion as they’re each unincorporated associations.

The temporary goes on to argue that the native TDX chapter can not purchase standing by “claiming to hunt reduction on behalf of potential future members,” comparable to future members of the fraternity.

“Stanford’s place is basically an effort to throw us out of courtroom on a technicality and to disclaim TDX the additional use of the authorized system to hunt a simply end result to our complaints,” SSTDX spokesperson Mark Hathaway wrote in an e mail to The Day by day. “Apparently, by trying to win on this specific technicality, Stanford’s lawyer-administrators are, in impact, saying that we ought to be denied the safety of the courts and pursue our grievances in opposition to Stanford immediately.”

In TDX’s temporary, the native chapter argued that Stanford didn’t observe earlier insurance policies and in the end made an unfair resolution in opposition to the chapter with “no proof” to assist the College’s findings that TDX violated the basic commonplace. 

Nonetheless, the College disputes this declare and says that no matter whether or not the native TDX chapter has standing to sue, the courtroom ought to nonetheless not reverse Stanford’s resolution to take away the chapter. Within the temporary, they argue that through the means of investigating the native TDX chapter, the College adhered to its insurance policies and supplied a good continuing. 

Within the College’s temporary, Stanford’s attorneys go on to argue that the proof of the native chapter’s wrongdoing is in actual fact supported by the College’s Group Conduct Board panel’s findings. 

“There was a tradition of illicit drug use by the Native TDX Chapter earlier than and on the time of [Eitan Weiner’s] demise,” Stanford’s temporary claims. 

Stanford argued of their temporary that the results of the sanction had “nonexistent” results on particular person college students and solely affected the rights of the fraternity. “Cheap minds” would discover a four-year lack of fraternity recognition and housing “applicable,” the temporary argued. 

Moreover, Stanford’s temporary cited Vice Provost Susie Brubaker-Cole’s resolution to lower the advisable interval of the fraternity’s lack of recognition from six years to 4 years, to counter TDX’s argument that the College had “retaliate[d] TDX’s train of its proper to enchantment by growing sanctions.” 

Stanford’s temporary concludes by asking the courtroom to “dismiss the Petition for lack of standing or, alternatively, deny the reduction requested within the Petition on the deserves.”