Democrats are now defending elite universities like Harvard and Columbia from threats to federal funding and tax-free positions, as they allegedly violated public policy, despite once defending the same legal precedent.
The left defended the 1983 Bob Jones University vs. US ruling. At the time, Democrats agreed with the federal government’s claim that institutions engaged in discrimination should not receive public funds, even for religious reasons.
Now, the left is guilty of guilty of guilty of the IRS to revoke Harvard’s tax-free status for claims that universities tolerate anti-Semitism and campus unrest, and the left is accusing them of violating the Free Speech Act to target ideological opponents.
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Democrats defend elite universities such as Harvard and Columbia from threats to federal funding and tax-free status. (Reuters/Nicolas pfosi)
“The Bob Jones case is a very strong precedent for the government’s horns in this,” Joe Bishop Henchman, vice president of tax policy and litigation at the National Union of Taxpayers Foundation and auxiliary scholar at the Cato Institute, told Fox News Digital in an interview.
“Bob Jones’ precedent makes Harvard’s hard case to win. If that case isn’t there, it’s much easier. “If the administration can argue that it’s a violation of public policy, then Bob Jones’ precedent continues.”
Today, Bob Jones University, a Christian liberal arts college in Greenville, South Carolina, has more than 2,700 student groups. In 1983 there was a policy that banned interracial dating and marriage among students, and expelled students who violated that policy. The IRS said schools are not eligible for tax-exempt status because of these racist policies.
Trump administrators are asking the IRS to cancel Harvard’s tax-free status
The Trump administration has announced it will freeze more than $2 billion in grants and contracts after Harvard University said it would not comply with federal demands on anti-Semitism. (AP image)
The school argued that revoking the tax-free status violated the freedom of its religion and was punished for sticking to a faithful and held to its faithful belief. However, the government has rebutted that it should not subsidize established public policies, particularly organisations that defy laws against racism (through tax credits).
The Supreme Court ruled 8-1 in the federal government’s favour in a landmark case of the Reagan era. Justice ruled that the IRS was allowed to deny tax-free status for schools that practice racism because it violated public policy. Despite the school’s claims of religious freedom, fighting racism was in the “persuasive government interests.”
“That’s the letter Bob Jones said, but maybe it’s not just a university,” Henchman said.
Drone View shows anti-Israel protesters voluntarily stuffing camps in Harvard University’s gardens in Cambridge, Massachusetts on May 14, 2024. (Image of Reuters/Briance Nyder TPX image)
The High Court found it failed to provide the “beneficial and stable impacts in community life” necessary to receive special tax status supported by taxpayers, according to judicial archive Oyez. Schools were unable to meet that standard because interracial relationships were prohibited.
The judge concluded that racism in education is inconsistent with “basic national public policy.” Recognizing the school’s religious beliefs, the court found that if the government needs to serve “government interests first,” it could limit religious freedoms when it is necessary to prohibit racism. As the court stated, “not all burdens on religion are unconstitutional.”
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Therefore, the Trump administration argues that anti-Semitism treatment on Harvard campus should disqualify universities from maintaining their 501(c)(3) tax-free status. The IRS is expected to make a final decision soon, according to a CNN report that first broke the story.
