Republican presidents revoked and restored BJU’s tax exemption, not Carter
Evidence
First, Bob Jones University lost its tax-exempt status, after years of warnings, on January 19, 1976. When Jimmy Carter was running for reelection in 1980, one of the Religious Right’s complaints against him was that his Internal Revenue Service was stripping evangelical institutions of their tax exemptions. … A second look at that date, January 19, 1976, reveals how scurrilous that charge was. January 19, 1976, was an important date for Carter, but not because he was in any way responsible for the action against Bob Jones University. That was the day he won a plurality in the Iowa precinct caucuses, his first major step toward winning the Democratic nomination for president. Carter assumed office a year and a day after Bob Jones University lost its tax exemption. Gerald R. Ford was president when that happened, not Carter. — Randall Balmer, Bad Faith, 178
Categorization
- XREF: connects to: Reagan later elevated the lone BJU-dissent vote to chief justice