Bob Jones University v. United States (461 U.S. 574)
U.S. Supreme Court · decided May 24, 1983 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)
- Citation
- 461 U.S. 574 · 103 S. Ct. 2017
- Decided
- May 24, 1983
- Term
- October Term 1982
- Vote
- 8–1
- Majority author
- Justice Burger
- Issue area
- Civil Rights
- Disposition
- Affirmed
- Outcome
- Petitioning party lost
- Ideological direction
- Liberal
Opinion excerpt
Chief Justice Burger delivered the opinion of the Court. We granted certiorari to decide whether petitioners, nonprofit private schools that prescribe and enforce racially discriminatory admissions standards on the basis of religious doctrine, qualify as tax-exempt organizations under § 501(c) (3) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1954. I — I A Until 1970, the Internal Revenue Service granted tax-exempt status to private schools, without regard to their racial admissions policies, under § 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code, 26 U. S. C. § 501(c)(3), and granted charitable deductions for contributions to such schools under § 170 of the Code, 26 U. S. C. § 170. On January 12, 1970, a three-judge District Court for the District of Columbia issued a preliminary injunction prohibiting the IRS from according tax-exempt status to private schools in Mississippi that discriminated as to admissions on the basis of race. Green v. Kennedy, 309 F. Supp. 1127, appeal dism’d sub nom. Cannon v. Green, 398 U. S. 956 (1970). Thereafter, in July 1970, the IRS concluded that it could “no longer legally justify allowing tax-exempt status [under § 501(c)(3)] to private schools which practice racial discrimination.” IRS News Release, July 7, 1970, reprinted in App. in No. 81-3, p. A235. At the same time, the IRS announced that it could not “treat gifts to such schools as charitable deductions for…
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