The Ivy League Hoodlums Are Getting What They Deserve

: Betsy Mccaughey on May 7, 2025

You and I have to pay more taxes so elite universities that willfully break the law discriminating against Jews, whites and Asians can get tax exemptions. It's a slap in the face.

Yet Harvard alum Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) is trying to turn the tables, accusing the Trump administration of "weaponizing" the IRS to strip Harvard of its 501c3 tax exempt status.

Truth is, Harvard should lose its tax-exempt status because it's guilty of illegally allowing the civil rights of Jewish students to be trashed. The case against Harvard is a slam dunk.

Numerous other universities where Jewish students are persecuted, including Ivies like Columbia and Yale, should lose their exemptions too.

This isn't about making left-wing academia more balanced. Section 501c3 of the Internal Revenue Code bars colleges and other organizations that enjoy tax-exempt status from engaging in "propaganda" or favoring political candidates, but the IRS has always turned a blind eye to campus leftism.

We may have to live with the reality that most universities are bastions of left-wing indoctrination. No one wants the IRS to bludgeon universities into conforming to the president's ideal of intellectual diversity. Under a future president, the hammer could swing the other way.

But calling on the IRS to stop subsidizing racial and religious discrimination is a moral imperative. It's also the agency's legal duty, according to Supreme Court precedent.

In 1983, the justices ruled that Bob Jones University's ban on interracial marriage violated the nation's "fundamental public policy" against racial discrimination in education. That case remains precedent today, though it has not been invoked in the last 40 years to strip another university of its tax-exempt status.

Now Harvard is guilty of fomenting blazing Jew-hatred through its curriculum and campus climate. The university has already confessed. A 500-page report in April admits to allowing a campus environment designed to "drive Israeli students (and Jewish students who feel connected to Israel) out of student life" and instruction that "normalizes" hatred of Jews and Israel.

A confession isn't enough.

There must be a penalty until the campus is shown to be hospitable to Jewish students.

If Harvard's 501c3 status is revoked, some donors will walk.

That's the price it should have to pay.

Former President Barack Obama, a Harvard alum, is dismissing the investigation into Harvard as a "ham-handed attempt to stifle academic freedom." Sorry, if Harvard were discriminating against Black students, or allowing nooses to be thrown over tree limbs, Obama would be joining a nationwide chorus of protest.

Discrimination against Jewish students is just as evil and illegal.

Alongside Schumer and Obama, the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression is also speaking out. It "staunchly opposes any governmental attempt to coerce educational institutions into ideological conformity."

Amen.

FIRE's concerns are legitimate. Any IRS investigation should be limited to stamping out illegal discrimination, not impinging on First Amendment rights or dictating the parameters of intellectual diversity.

As for President Donald Trump's role, he needs to back off and let the IRS do its job. Federal law (26 U.S. Code Section 7217) actually prohibits the president and other senior executive branch officials, except the Treasury secretary, from requesting the IRS audit anyone or any organization.

On Friday, Trump posted on Truth Social that "We are going to be taking away Harvard's Tax Exempt Status. It's what they deserve!" That detracts from the open-and-shut case against the university. Zip it, Mr. President.

The IRS should not stop with Harvard. The Anti-Defamation League gives F grades to Princeton, Stanford and the State University of New York's Purchase and Rockland campuses for allowing rampant antisemitism. Columbia and Yale get Ds. Why should taxpayers support that?

The IRS should also go after reverse racial discrimination in university admissions. Since 2023, when the Supreme Court struck down racial preferences, many institutions are skirting the ruling.

The nonprofit Do No Harm has documented how numerous medical schools are still emphasizing racial diversity and discounting the academic skills that produce "clinical excellence." Pity the patients.

Quinnipiac University, the University of Maryland, the University of Chicago and Duke University openly brag about prioritizing race in medical school admissions -- never mind the raw deal they're giving qualified white and Asian applicants who want to be doctors.

The discrimination is revolting. Time to crack down. The best way is to revoke their tax exemptions. Money talks.

Betsy McCaughey is a former Lt. Governor of New York State and Chairman of the Committee to Reduce Infection Deaths at www.hospitalinfection.org. Follow her on Twitter @Betsy_McCaughey. To find out more about Betsy McCaughey and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.

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