Nearly two years ago, as I explained in this post, a very confused federal district judge (a Bush 43 appointee, as it happens) ruled that a school’s federal 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status qualifies as “Federal financial assistance” under Title IX and thus subjects tax-exempt schools to the strictures of Title IX’s ban on discrimination “on the basis of sex.” As I pointed out, tax-exempt institutions like Hillsdale College and Grove City College that do not accept federal grants or participate in any federal student-loan programs have made these huge financial sacrifices in order to avoid being entangled in the strings that accompany federal aid. If the district judge’s ruling were sound, they would have done so for naught.
Today a unanimous panel of the Fourth Circuit reversed the district judge’s unsound ruling in a suitably short opinion (Buettner-Hartsoe v. Baltimore Lutheran High School Ass’n). Judge Stephanie Thacker wrote the opinion, and Judges Pamela Harris and Allison Jones Rushing joined it. Thacker and Harris were appointed by Barack Obama, Rushing by Donald Trump. Given that the case involves Title IX, it’s perhaps also worth noting that all three judges on the panel are women.
This was a very easy case. But given how often liberal Fourth Circuit judges have gone off the rails, the result couldn’t be taken for granted.