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What is the petition?

Ohio State’s petition asks the U.S. Supreme Court to preserve the core missions of the statute of limitations and Title IX by seeking review of two legal questions.

• The first is to preserve the statute of limitations for Title IX claims, which prevents the filing of decades-old legal claims, when witnesses may be absent and evidence has been destroyed, and encourages students to notify schools of harm in a timely manner.
• The second is to maintain Title IX’s protection of students who are denied educational opportunities or benefits on the basis of sex – rather than virtually anyone who steps foot on a school’s campus.

What does it mean?

At its core, Ohio State’s petition asks the Supreme Court to uphold its commitment to statutes of limitations and reaffirm that they begin to run when an injury occurs, not decades later. Ohio State’s petition is also asking the Court to uphold a central mission of Title IX, which is to protect students, rather than protecting individuals who are not even enrolled in or employed by a school. 

The Supreme Court has repeatedly emphasized that statutes of limitations are not simply technicalities but are vital to our legal system. Supreme Court justices from Antonin Scalia to Sonia Sotomayor have touted their importance. 

How did we get here?

Plaintiffs have sued the university regarding sexual abuse by Richard Strauss, an Ohio State doctor from 1978 to 1998, who died in 2005. A federal trial court dismissed those Title IX claims because the acts occurred more than 20 to 40 years before plaintiffs filed suit, decades outside of the two-year statute of limitations governing their claims.

In a divided decision, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit ruled the cases could move forward. Four judges of the Sixth Circuit either disagreed with the majority’s decision or expressly invited the U.S. Supreme Court to review the case. 

Why does it matter?

As the Supreme Court has repeatedly recognized, statutes of limitations are critical to the rule of law. Unless the Supreme Court intervenes, the Sixth Circuit’s ruling will undermine the vital interests served by statutes of limitations and negatively impact educational institutions that accept federal funds, as well as the students of these institutions. Title IX is an important federal statutory program that protects access to educational programs and activities across the country. More than 100,000 educational institutions – with collective enrollment of nearly 70 million students – receive federal funds and are potentially subject to Title IX. 

Allowing the Sixth Circuit ruling to stand and allowing decades-old claims to be brought forth could cause schools to refrain from doing exactly what Ohio State did in this case – launch a rigorous investigation into decades-old abuses to do everything it can to prevent such abuses in the future.  

Additionally, the inevitable increase in costs associated with litigating Title IX claims decades in the past could divert funds allocated for educational programs and activities, ultimately harming students themselves.

Ohio State’s petition does not diminish the university’s commitment to supporting survivors, discovering and sharing the facts, and continuing its work to change the culture of the past – and to preventing abuse in the future – as Ohio State has done over the past 25 years. This petition asks the Supreme Court to uphold fundamental, well-established legal principles and the rule of law. The questions presented in the petition are purely legal issues with implications that will extend far beyond Ohio State.

What is the background?

Ohio State’s petition arises from a series of lawsuits that were filed beginning in 2018 related to sexual abuse committed more than two to four decades ago by Richard Strauss, a physician employed by the university between 1978 and 1998. Strauss died in 2005.

Although the two-year statute of limitations on these claims had long expired, Ohio State offered survivors the opportunity to settle their lawsuits for substantial amounts.

The majority of the survivors settled their claims. Ohio State provided more than $60 million to 296 individuals through a trauma-informed approach that did not require survivors to prove they were harmed through any litigation process such as discovery or depositions. Ohio State has made sincere and persistent efforts at both monetary and non-monetary reconciliation with survivors, and all male students who filed lawsuits have been offered the opportunity to settle. The remaining plaintiffs who were male students rejected monetary offers and continue to pursue their legal claims.