This week in Christian history: Bob Jones loses at Supreme Court, Protestants banned from Canada
Bob Jones University loses Supreme Court case – May 24, 1983
This week marks the anniversary of when Bob Jones University lost a U.S. Supreme Court case to maintain its tax-exempt status while prohibiting interracial dating.
Chief Justice Warren Burger delivered the majority opinion of the court, concluding that the government had a vested interest in preventing racial discrimination in education.
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“Denial of tax benefits will inevitably have a substantial impact on the operation of private religious schools, but will not prevent those schools from observing their religious tenets,” wrote Burger.
“The governmental interest at stake here is compelling … the Government has a fundamental, overriding interest in eradicating racial discrimination in education—discrimination that prevailed, with official approval, for the first 165 years of this Nation's history. That governmental interest substantially outweighs whatever burden denial of tax benefits places on petitioners' exercise of their religious beliefs.”
In 2000, BJU announced that it had ended its ban on interracial dating and by 2017, the Christian school had officially regained its nonprofit status.
