The Week

Whenever we are tempted to despair that there is no justice in this world, we remind ourselves that the Berrigans are in prison, and Nixon isn’t. The system, say what you will, works.

A potentially historic clash between Congress and the Courts is now brewing, over private schools and bureaucratic presumption. For ten years now, the Supreme Court has held that the IRS may not grant tax exemptions to private segregated schools. Fair enough, or at least not surprising. But in 1978, the IRS proposed a radical change of the rules of the game—any school which has been “established or expanded” during a period of desegregation would be presumed to be segregated. The burden of proof would shift from bureaucrat to citizen. Private schools would be compelled to jump through a long row of IRS-held hoops. The plan never came to fruition because Congressmen Ashbrook and Dornan amended the Treasury, Appropriations Act to forbid the IRS to expend money on the scheme. The IRS promptly involved itself in a sweetheart lawsuit against like-minded “plaintiffs,” took a dive, and got itself ordered by a federal judge to do what it had wanted in the first place. By a vote of 337 to 83, the House has now amended the relevant act to forbid the IRS from spending tax money to carry out the court order. Representative Ashbrook quoted no less an authority than James Madison: “This power of the purse may, in fact, be regarded as the most complete and effectual weapon with which any constitution can arm the immediate representatives of the people.” It could be a battle royal.

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Whenever we are tempted to despair that there is no justice in this world, we remind ourselves that the Berrigans are in prison, and Nixon isn’t. The system, say what you will, works.

A potentially historic clash between Congress and the Courts is now brewing, over private schools and bureaucratic presumption. For ten years now, the Supreme Court has held that the IRS may not grant tax exemptions to private segregated schools. Fair enough, or at least not surprising. But in 1978, the IRS proposed a radical change of the rules of the game—any school which has been “established or expanded” during a period of desegregation would be presumed to be segregated. The burden of proof would shift from bureaucrat to citizen. Private schools would be compelled to jump through a long row of IRS-held hoops. The plan never came to fruition because Congressmen Ashbrook and Dornan amended the Treasury, Appropriations Act to forbid the IRS to expend money on the scheme. The IRS promptly involved itself in a sweetheart lawsuit against like-minded “plaintiffs,” took a dive, and got itself ordered by a federal judge to do what it had wanted in the first place. By a vote of 337 to 83, the House has now amended the relevant act to forbid the IRS from spending tax money to carry out the court order. Representative Ashbrook quoted no less an authority than James Madison: “This power of the purse may, in fact, be regarded as the most complete and effectual weapon with which any constitution can arm the immediate representatives of the people.” It could be a battle royal.