October 2, 2026

DISPATCHES FROM THE EDUCATION APOCALYPSE: The Moral Wilderness of the Cornell Seven Case.

So, what did happen? Jane Doe’s complaint says that she started drinking vodka at her sorority house and was already intoxicated when she got to a bar, which served her at least one drink even though she was underaged and drunk (she is suing the bar). She then went to the fraternity house, where she alleges that one of the men “propositioned her with having a threesome with her and another one of his fraternity brothers.” Things went badly off the rails from there.

Did she agree? The complaint doesn’t say. It instead insists that, “in her drunken state, Plaintiff was incapable of consenting to this proposition.” That, however, is simply not the standard under New York law — at least, not the criminal law. The New York Penal Code offers three avenues to prove rape (other than the victim being underage). Third-degree rape under Section 130.25 punishes sex “without such person’s consent where such lack of consent is by reason of some factor other than incapacity to consent.” Second-degree rape under Section 130.30 requires proof that the victim was “incapable of consent by reason of being mentally disabled or mentally incapacitated.” First-degree rape under Section 130.35 requires proof that the victim was “incapable of consent by reason of being physically helpless.” As Sunny Hostin of The View — who is rarely a voice of sanity, but is also an experienced prosecutor of sex offenses — noted, New York law doesn’t consider a victim to be incapacitated, physically or mentally, simply because she was voluntarily intoxicated and had impaired judgment.

From here on, we have sharply conflicting accounts from Jane Doe herself. According to Van Houten, her 2024 statement shows that she consented not only to the threesome but also to the orgy that followed with five other frat brothers. If that’s true, it’s case closed for rape; if it’s not true but it’s what was in her statement at the time, Van Houten acted entirely correctly in refusing to bring charges. Moreover, if she said conflicting things then (with the chance to press criminal charges) and now (when she is suing the university and others for money in Manhattan), that would tend to suggest that the later account is the less credible one. The CBS account of Jane Doe’s statement to the Cornell police is less emphatic on this point but seems consistent with having consented to at least some of what happened:

The transcript shows she distinguished the initial sexual activity from what she says happened later, and when asked whether she was OK with the initial encounter, she said, “Yeah, as much as I can be because, again, I was super drunk when I got there. . . . But I was pretty OK with all of this.” Jane Doe added, according to the transcript, “And then, of course, I was being hit at the same time. Physically hit very, very hard.” . . . She said she didn’t remember the end of the night “where I was raped” and didn’t know how many people had sex with her. When describing what happened later in the night, the transcript says Jane Doe said, “I can say with 100% confidence I was raped.”

According to what we’ve been told about the 2024 statement, the two men who initiated the encounter were in fairly impaired condition themselves:

Jane Doe agreed—per her statement, she was “pretty okay with having this threesome” as well as titillated by the possibility that the two men might be sexually attracted to each other—but the encounter ended when both men proved too drunk to perform. Her friend lost his erection and fell asleep; the other man started dry heaving.

The second man seems not to be one of the seven accused rapists. Jane Doe and the men were drinking and snorting ketamine as things progressed, allegedly taking hits of the drug off one another’s sexual organs and other body parts. Jane Doe alleges in her complaint that she had never taken the drug before and that she was also given marijuana and rum. While her lawyers say (with conspicuous use of the passive voice) that she “was plied with alcohol and drugs to the point of intoxication,” they don’t actually indicate that this was involuntary.

And now a word from Camille Paglia: Camille Paglia on Frat Parties and Consent: “He Is Right to Think You Have Consented.”

Posted at 7:45 am by Ed Driscoll

ELECTRONIC FRONTIER FOUNDATION: Utah’s VPN Law Demands a Technical Impossibility.

Signed into law earlier this year, SB 73 attempted to regulate adult websites by requiring them to block VPN users or to identify the physical location of visitors using them or similar tools that mask their network traffic. It even went so far as to prohibit websites from offering instructions on how to use a VPN to bypass these checks. This made Utah, to EFF’s knowledge, the first state in the nation to target the use of VPNs to avoid legally mandated age-verification gates.

The Utah federal court halted enforcement of the law’s VPN provisions last week, ruling that the law likely violates the U.S. Constitution’s prohibition on passing laws that significantly burden businesses and people outside Utah’s borders.

SB 73 burdens the rights of all internet users outside of Utah because it requires adult websites to either know every visiting user’s physical location, and then block those in Utah, or to verify every visitor’s age just in case they might be in Utah.
…
The court recognized that the problem is that SB 73 “requires entities like Aylo to geolocate its website users with perfection to avoid liability.” But, at the same time, the court acknowledged “that geolocation perfection is not presently possible.”

Mere impossibility never slowed down a determined lawmaker.

Posted at 7:36 am by Stephen Green

TELL ME IT’S ALMOST NOTHING BUT GRAFT AND PAYOFFS WITHOUT TELLING ME IT’S ALMOST NOTHING BUT GRAFT AND PAYOFFS:

Posted at 7:20 am by Stephen Green

JOSH BLACKMAN: Somehow the N.Y. Times Made Me Sympathetic To Chief Justice Roberts: Jodi Kantor’s latest expose tells us nothing about the Court’s decision but does destroy John Roberts’s last refuge from scoundrels like me. “What happens of Hupper Island stays on Hupper Island. Until the New York Times got to it. Jodi Kantor wrote a lengthy expose about how the neighbors feel. She interviews a few of Roberts’s friends and far more of his foes. We learn nothing about the Court, or Roberts’s decision. Unlike the silly story about Martha Ann Alito’s flags, there is no allegation that Roberts did anything wrong. The sole effect, and indeed purpose, of this article, is to show how Roberts is alienated in his family summer home. We learn nothing about Roberts, but learn lots about the awful liberals of Hupper Island.”

Posted at 7:11 am by Glenn Reynolds

FROM NATHAN BRINDLE:  I’m the Beautiful But Evil Space Princess Who Rules A Galactic Empire But Really Wants To Leave People Ruthlessly Alone!: Volume 5

I'm the Beautiful But Evil Space Princess Who Rules A Galactic Empire But Really Wants To Leave People Ruthlessly Alone!: Volume 5

Imperial Princess Regnant Alice has lately discovered herself to be with child.

This doesn’t stop her usual grind of duties, of which she has also discovered quite the backlog since returning from her honeymoon with Prince Daniel. With the help of both Daniel and her private secretary Lady Candace, and of course that of her loyal maids, the Princess Regnant powers through audiences and public appearances and even the unending round of lavish soirées thrown by the rich and noble of Capital.

As always, though, her life is bound to have problems tossed into it…much like grenades. An ancient frigate appears in Capital space, from a sector a hundred thousand light years away, normally a 12-year one way trip. Of course they bring news of a problem. But their means of arrival may also spark the biggest war seen in the Galaxy since the Wars of the Dispersal…

The fifth volume of the BBESP light novel!

Posted at 7:00 am by Sarah Hoyt

I’D WATCH THAT:

Posted at 7:00 am by Glenn Reynolds

I HAVE A THEORY THAT THE LATEST KERFUFFLE AND THE BLOW UP OF THE CLANCY CASE ARE BOTH ATTEMPTS BY THE LEFT TO COURT FEMALE LIV:  A piece on the ‘Rape On Campus’ myth.

It makes me suspect that the left is not nearly as sure of victory as they pretend to be.

Posted at 2:31 am by Sarah Hoyt

I’M PUZZLED AS TO WHY WE CAN’T ENFORCE THE LAW ENOUGH TO KEEP PEOPLE MOSTLY SAFE:  Secure in their Persons.

Posted at 12:50 am by Sarah Hoyt

October 1, 2026

OPEN THREAD: You know what to do.

Posted at 9:30 pm by Glenn Reynolds