BUTLER AND SIM: Honor sits squarely within the law
Before addressing the authors’ non-legal concerns with the single sanction, we would like to dispel some egregious misinformation: Jaeyoon Park and Ian Robertson’s recent op-ed “Honor is not above the law” makes incorrect assumptions about due process and the honor system. The authors have contended that the honor system as it currently functions “violates basic due process of law.” First, it is important to note that both the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Virginia and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit (an appellate court one step below the U.S. Supreme Court for federal cases arising in Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia, North Carolina and South Carolina), have already dismissed a direct challenge to the sufficiency of due process protections for students accused of an honor offense in the case Henson v. the Honor Committee of UVA. Now we address each of the authors’ arguments in turn.