Victory for Civil Rights

Women, minorities, the handicapped and the elderly won fair and square this week in a fight to strengthen civil rights. By an impressive 315-98 vote, the House completed congressional action on a bill to require the government to withhold all federal funds from colleges or other institutions if any single program within those institutions practices discrimination. President Reagan threatens to veto the bill, but margins in both the Senate and the House are nicely large enough to override the veto and force the bill into law.

The veto would rest on a White House judgment that the measure, which would overturn the 1984 Grove City decision by the U.S. Supreme Court, is “a potentially disastrous piece of legislation.” A White House statement contends that the bill would weaken the power of states and “extend federal intervention into the lives of ordinary Americans.” That’s rubbish. The legislation would instead protect ordinary Americans.

Ordinary Americans who would be protected again, as before the Grove City decision, include young woman active in athletics. With the passage of Title IX of the 1972 Education Amendments, which barred sex discrimination in federally funded education programs, many colleges increased their support of women’s basketball, track and other programs. But since the 1984 decision the law has said that if federal money is not used for athletics--and it seldom is, coming mostly in the form of student financial aid--it doesn’t matter whether sports programs are fair to women. Similar protection would be extended to elderly Americans, minorities and the handicapped.

But the protection came at some cost. Once again the abortion issue was inserted into a debate in which it didn’t belong. But, for strategic reasons, those who favor allowing a woman to choose to end a pregnancy had to go along with those who don’t. An amendment was added that would exempt hospitals or schools receiving federal aid from any requirement that they perform abortions or pay for them. As far as anyone can tell, no hospital had ever been required to perform an abortion, but opponents of the bill were raising that possibility. The amendment also would eliminate the requirement that institutions both receiving federal funds and providing health insurance must include abortion coverage.

The White House, the Justice Department and congressional opponents of this legislation are spouting a great deal of nonsense in arguing that it would be so broad that farmers who receive crop subsidies would be covered--they would not--or that entire churches or synagogues would be covered if any of their programs got federal money--they would not.

In general, federal law doesn’t grant immunity from anti-discrimination laws to religious organizations, nor should it; it does grant some religious exemptions, like allowing religious organizations to favor members of the same faith in employment.

Congress should override a veto to save Reagan from himself and to save a good law from defeat.