United States of America

IRS May Strip Tax-Exempt Status Over Race Policies

Is this a justified legal crackdown or a McCarthy-era assault on higher education?

6 hours ago·Updated 1 hour ago

IRS May Strip Tax-Exempt Status Over Race Policies

Story

Above: Harvard University on May 29. Image credit: Christian Kantosky/The Boston Globe/Getty Images

The Spin

Republican narrative

Schools that rebrand DEI offices and hide race-based preferences aren't fooling anyone. Since SCOTUS's ruling ending affirmative action, schools have openly flouted the new colorblind standards, and legal precedent supports the use of the IRS to implement a public policy goal. If schools complied with the law, there would be no need to exercise this power to stop schools from discriminating.

The Federalist The Hill Aei

Democratic narrative

Threatening 18,000 schools with loss of tax-exempt status is a blunt, overbroad instrument that could strip scholarships from roughly 750,000 students and push already-struggling institutions toward closure. Trump's single-minded assault on higher education has the eerie echo of McCarthyism, as DEI becomes a boogeyman excuse to gut schools and colleges. A chilling effect of education is all but certain.

Slate The Nation Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts