AHC and WI: Pres. Reagan better handles Bob Jones University vs. IRS? (1982)

President Reagan: The Role of a Lifetime, Lou Cannon, 1991, 2000, page 459:

https://books.google.com/books?id=I5Yoz3dWP28C&pg=PA459&dq=%22The+president+was+so+cut+off+from+the+counsel+of+black+Americans%22&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0CAoQ6AEwAGoVChMIm8_CiNzQxgIVBj2SCh1qrgQr#v=onepage&q=%22The%20president%20was%20so%20cut%20off%20from%20the%20counsel%20of%20black%20Americans%22&f=false

' . . . The president was so cut off from the counsel of black Americans that he sometimes did not even realize when he was offending them. One glaring example occurred early in 1982 when Reagan sided with Bob Jones University of Greenville, South Carolina, and the Goldsboro Christian Schools of Goldsboro, North Carolina, in a lawsuit to obtain federal tax exemptions that had been denied them by the Internal Revenue Service. . . '
At issue was whether or not religious schools which engaged in racial discrimination could still receive tax exempt status as a nonprofit.
 
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Reagan Played Direct Role on Tax Exemptions, Washington Post, Martin Schram and Charles R. Babcock January 21, 1982.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/archi...mptions/e7f90435-f0aa-4535-9b70-af4ee2ffba2b/

' . . . The memo, originally obtained by CBS News, is titled "Presidential Log of Selected House Mail." House Republican Whip Trent Lott (Miss.), it said, "writes regarding pending cases concerning the tax exempt status of church schools. Indicates that the Supreme Court has now agreed to review the case of 'Bob Jones University v. United States,' and urges you to intervene in this particular case."

'To the right of that summary, in the space reserved for comments, the president had written: "I think we should." . . . '
That's what I've read before, that the issue was presented to Reagan simply as an issue of religious freedom. And not as an issue of civil rights vs. religious freedom, or an issue involving both.

This same article talked about that the Labor Dept. under Reagan was thinking of rescinding a Carter administration rule that federal contractors could not use federal money to pay dues at clubs which discriminate (e.g. country clubs which discriminate). Now, I'm not sure how continuing discrimination is a "conservative" position. But it might be that the people around Reagan were more doctrinaire or old-line conservative than he was.
 
President Reagan: The Role of a Lifetime, Lou Cannon, 1991, 2000, page 460:

https://books.google.com/books?id=7rBLCZuEOswC&pg=PA460&dq=%22Deaver+believed+Meese+was+leading+Reagan+into+a+political+minefield%22&hl=en&sa=X&ei=-B2gVaWiCpCvogSt8KC4BA&ved=0CB4Q6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=%22Deaver%20believed%20Meese%20was%20leading%20Reagan%20into%20a%20political%20minefield%22&f=false

' . . . Deaver believed Meese was leading Reagan into a political minefield without benefit of mine detectors and decided to intervene. He thought Ragan might reach a different decision if he talked to blacks. Since no black then held a prominent position in the White House, Deaver sought help from Thaddeus Garrett Jr., domestic affairs adviser to Vice President Bush, and Melvin Bradley, a minor official in the Office of Policy Development. Deaver persuaded the president to meet with Garrett and Bradley on January 12, four days after the IRS ruling. Garrett, trained as a Methodist minister, dramatically related to Reagan a sermon he had heard in church two days earlier that had been inspired by the Bob Jones decision. The minister had recounted the parable of the serpent, a story about how a woman saves the life of a wounded snake and is ungratefully bitten in return. "Reagan is that snake!" the preacher had concluded. The congregation had responded with a chorus of amens.

'Reagan was impressed with this story—"horrified," as Deaver remembers it—and ready to beat a retreat. . . '
One silver lining might be if Ed Meese, Mike Deaver, William French Smith, and others decide that it's not a particular tragedy if the administration occasionally has to reverse a position.

Or, they might come to the opposite conclusion and decide they can't reverse another position for a good long while. In my mind, that's not the conclusion to draw, but different people see this different ways.
 
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