Mirror of Justice

A blog dedicated to the development of Catholic legal theory.
Affiliated with the Program on Church, State & Society at Notre Dame Law School.

Monday, January 15, 2024

Title IX and the Assault on Hillsdale College

In the Wall Street Journal, Tunku Varadarajan has a piece called "Title IX and the Assault on Hillsdale College."  It's important.  Here's a bit:

The lawsuit seeks to impose Title IX’s strictures on Hillsdale, arguing that the college’s tax-exempt status under Section 501(c)(3) of the Tax Code “operates as a subsidy, which is a form of federal financial assistance.”

Mr. Arnn sees a darker ideological intent in this claim. “This is about the kind of society some people want us to have,” he says. “The principle that because you have a tax deduction you’re spending government money can’t mean anything other than that all money, in principle, belongs to the government.” This “tax-deduction thing,” as he calls the argument, “would be a massive expansion of government authority in one go. And of course, there are many people who seek that in America.”

Arnn is correct.  The notion that a tax exemption -- that is, a decision by the government not to impose a tax -- "counts" as a subsidy is a dangerous one, in a community that attaches any importance to civil society.

https://mirrorofjustice.blogs.com/mirrorofjustice/2024/01/title-ix-and-the-assault-on-hillsdale-college.html

Garnett, Rick | Permalink