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What does tax law have to do with discriminatory fraternities and sororities? All these Greek organizations have been granted tax-exempt status. The SAE chapter in Oklahoma files under the national SAE grant of tax-exemption. By granting a tax-exemption to the fraternity, we, as a society, are subsidizing actions we purport to despise.

If these actions are not societally acceptable, we should not be granting this tax benefit to the organizations. In 1983, the Supreme Court ruled that tax-exempt organizations could lose their tax-exempt status when their practices are contrary to a compelling public policy. One such policy is preventing racial discrimination. Under the Reagan administration, the IRS revoked Bob Jones University’s tax exemption because of its racially discriminatory policies, including not admitting black students. In Bob Jones University v. U.S., the university contested the IRS’s decision. The Supreme Court upheld the IRS’s revocation, deciding that, notwithstanding the university’s sincere interpretation of biblical mandates, the government’s “overriding interest in eradicating racial discrimination in education” outweighed any burden on the university from denial of tax-exempt status based on its exercise of its religious beliefs.

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