- May 13th, 2015, 1:02 pm
#483667
http://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2 ... /26883351/
Christian schools will have no choice about gay marriageNot only religious schools, but I'm sure churches who oppose same sex marriages could face the same potential loss of tax exempt status.
A Supreme Court ruling could shatter religious school finances.
Justice Alito posed a predictable, but revealing question to Solicitor General Donald Verrilli, Jr., in the recent Supreme Court same-sex marriage oral argument: "In the Bob Jones case, the court held that a college was not entitled to tax exempt status if it opposed interracial marriage or interracial dating. So would the same apply to a university or a college if it opposed same-sex marriage?"
Verrilli replied that he would need to know more specifics, but allowed that "it's certainly going to be an issue. I don't deny that."
The solicitor general's answer should have been and probably was practiced. The question was unlikely to have surprised Verrilli, especially with the kind of preparation undertaken by the highest appellate lawyer for the United States in such high stakes situations. Such preparations would include multiple moot courts, simulated arguments with various lawyers playing the roles of each of the members of the Supreme Court trying to ask as many questions as possible.....
Alito's question was premised on the Bob Jones University case from 1983 in which the IRS revoked the school's tax exempt status because of its policies on interracial dating and marriage. BJU defended on the basis of the free exercise of religion. The Supreme Court rejected their defense holding that the government's goal of eradicating racial discrimination in marriage was more important than BJU's religious rights.
So, the follow-up question from Alito's question is obvious: If the court rules in favor of same sex marriage, how can religious colleges that refuse to acknowledge such unions avoid BJU's fate?