John Graham submitted comments to the U.S. Department of the Treasury and Internal Revenue Service in response to proposed regulations addressing racial nondiscrimination requirements for private schools under Section 501(c)(3).

In his comments, Graham supports the longstanding rule that private schools engaging in racial discrimination do not qualify as charitable organizations under Section 501(c)(3), while urging Treasury and the IRS to clarify that remedial, inclusive race-conscious scholarship and outreach programs designed to assist historically disadvantaged groups do not constitute prohibited racial discrimination.

Graham argues that the proposed regulations risk conflating exclusionary discrimination with programs intended to broaden educational access, particularly through proposed changes to Revenue Procedure 75-50. He recommends that Treasury and the IRS preserve existing protections for such programs and expressly confirm that race-conscious scholarships, outreach efforts and other remedial initiatives may remain consistent with charitable purposes under Section 501(c)(3).

The comments also address the scope of the public-policy doctrine established in Bob Jones University v. United States and the implications of Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard, arguing that neither provides a basis for treating remedial charitable programs as prohibited discrimination under federal tax law.

Read the full comment letter here.