Quote:
Originally Posted by CFrance
Thank you.
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From the American Prospect:
These schools cannot hide behind the façade that they are "private" institutions and can discriminate however they please.
They purport to be open to all on an equal opportunity basis, and each of them annually receives tens of millions of dollars in federal funds. In 2008, Notre Dame received $60 million in federal research funds; $20 million more in government grants for tuition; and $265 million in charitable donations for which we taxpayers picked up the tab of about $80 million, by way of tax deductions to the donors.
These universities are subject to the Civil Rights Act of 1866, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of race or ancestry in the admissions decisions of private schools. The 1866 Act -- the first civil-rights statute in the nation's history -- overturned the infamous Dred Scott decision, which had held that U.S. citizenship was inherited from a person's ancestors.
The act mandated instead that all persons born in the United States -- "the children of all parentage whatever" -- are U.S. citizens and have an equal right to enter into contracts, including contracts to attend a school, without discrimination based on ancestry or race.