The preservation of individual liberty rests in part on the modesty of government officials and their willingness to aim laws at human behavior, not human nature or belief. Explicitly positing the laudable but Utopian goal of eliminating (not lessening) sexual violence, the SaVE Act is an immodest bill; it requires school administrators to address violence by doing nothing less than "changing social norms."

Imagine Congress enacting a law dictating social norms and definitions of healthy relationships, by which we are all required to abide. The SaVE Act goes nearly this far; it would impose definitions of healthy relationships, attitudes, and social norms on undergraduate students through the intermediary of school administrators, who will be guided, as usual, by highly risk averse lawyers intent on shielding schools from any remotely conceivable liability for failing to meet federal standards.

This is not idle speculation. Colleges and universities have engaged in violence prevention efforts similar to those required by this bill for years. Indeed, the basis for SaVE Act findings that only a minority of schools educate students about sexual violence, including date rape, is unclear, and my queries about these findings to Casey's staff remain unanswered. Staffers at the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE), who have long been monitoring "safe" (and "civil") campus programs, are skeptical. Empirical evidence is scarce, but considerable anecdotal evidence suggests that "peer education programs on topics like date rape (are) common," Samantha Harris remarks. Will Creeley "finds it unlikely that institutions as highly attuned to risk management as colleges and universities have committed to these kinds of training and educational initiatives in such low numbers." But if it's true that a majority of institutions have not developed sexual violence awareness and prevention programs, it is also true that existing programs have dramatically (and often stupidly) infringed on students' individual rights. Still, the problem of violence persists.

In insisting that violence prevention programs on campus respect basic individual liberties I feel compelled to add that I'm neither denying nor dismissing the crime of sexual violence (I expect to be accused of doing so), nor am I suggesting that Congress avoid even trying to alleviate it. The SaVE Act is salvageable; the criticisms I've raised could easily be addressed without undermining the bill's intent or altering its basic architecture. It reads like a bill that was drafted with the help of anti-violence groups (which have officially endorsed it) and little if any input from civil libertarians.

Where does the ACLU stand on the SaVE Act? So far I've received no response to my query about the organization's position on this bill or my invitation to comment on it. Given the ACLU's image as a vigilant and comprehensive defender of civil liberty, its silence on legislation like this translates into tacit support, especially in light of its explicit support for the Obama Administration's similarly flawed sexual harassment guidelines for schools. Once the ACLU vigorously opposed anti-harassment or anti violence measures that gratuitously restricted basic liberties; these days it's apt to ignore or support them. I mention this not for the sake of berating the ACLU (a pointless exercise) but to underscore the need for other civil liberties advocates -- especially liberal civil liberties advocates -- to step up where the ACLU has stepped back.