Paying the Piper: ACLU Sues To End Liberty "U's" Tax-Free Status

HuzzaH! for the ACLU. They accuse the Xian madrassa of engaging in partisan political activity, in violation of the terms of their tax-exempt status.

A couple of weeks ago, Liberty "University," the Xian/fundie diploma mill founded by "Rev" Jerry Falwell, "reorganized" the ways by which the "University" grants charters to student organizations. In the aftermath of the reorganization, the "University" banned its nascent Young Democrats from the use of "univeristy" facilities, or resources, and kicked them off the campus. A WaPo editorial last week outlines the issue clearly:

This Is Liberty?
Campus Democrats are punished for supporting Democrats.

YOU CAN be a Democrat at Liberty University as long as you don't support Barack Obama. Or Virginia Rep. Tom Perriello. Or any other candidate who so much as hints at supporting abortion rights or same-sex marriage. That, at least, seems to be the message Liberty University sent when it withdrew its recognition of the campus Democratic group as an official club. The students' offense was not that they spoke out in favor of abortion or gay marriage but that they supported candidates who do. Liberty is a vibrant, diverse school of 11,500 residential students; it's too bad its administrators appear to have so little tolerance for political diversity.

The university recognized the club in October with the understanding that members wouldn't support gay marriage or abortion. "In fact," said Mathew D. Staver, dean of the university's school of law, "they did not live up to their statements." Mr. Staver acknowledged to us that club members never vocalized support for abortion or gay rights. Rather, he said, they were "advocating positions for individual candidates that clearly promoted abortion." Mr. Staver emphasized that campus Democrats won't face sanctions and will still be able to meet on campus; they just won't be able to use the university's name or receive school funds....

So the ACLU bravely took the bit in their teeth and launched a request that in view of the clearly discriminatory and partisan nature of the exclusion, that IRS look into into the tax-exempt status of said fundie madrassa with an eye to ending it.

I won't cease being aggrieved by this nest of obscene 'academic' poseurs until the day dawns when the bull-dozers roll over the feculent fundie hell-hole, and a coven of witches follow behind strewing salt on the ground.