Politics

Sen. Josh Hawley Wants Yale’s Federal Funding Stripped If Religious Students Are Not Treated Fairly

No featured image available

Republican Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley said during an appearance with “Fox & Friends” Wednesday that he wants Yale University’s federal funding taken away if the school does not treat religious students fairly.

“I want to see that they are treating religious students and religious organizations in the same way they treat every other legal organization and every other student,” Hawley, who graduated from Yale Law School in 2006, said.

“If Yale doesn’t do that, if they don’t treat religious students fairly, they should have their federal funding stripped,” Hawley continued.

Hawley’s remarks come as Republican Texas Sen. Ted Cruz said he will investigate the law school’s policy that allegedly blacklists Christian groups. Yale Law changed its policy on school stipends following complaints from an LGBTQ group called Outlaws, which criticized the Federalist Society for inviting a lawyer from Christian legal group Alliance Defending Freedom in February.

“The Law School cannot prohibit a student from working for an employer who discriminates, but that is not a reason why Yale Law School should bear any obligation to fund that work, particularly if that organization does not give equal employment opportunity to all of our students,” an email from law school dean Heather Gerken said, the Washington Examiner reported.

“It sounds like Yale now has been exposed for what they’re doing and now they are trying to backtrack,” Hawley said. “There is still a lot of oh, trust us, trust us, we’ll get it right. We are not going to trust anything. I want to seat details of their policy.”

Hawley added that Yale and other elite schools were becoming more discriminatory.

“I’m afraid it just get worse and worse,” Hawley said. “A lot of these elite institutions are becoming more and more discriminatory even as by the way they build up these multi-billion-dollar endowments. They are taking all this taxpayer money. They are getting rich off of it. This isn’t right.”

Hawley sent a letter to Attorney General William Barr requesting the Department of Justice to closely monitor Yale and to cease funding to the school if it goes after “religious students for special disfavor,” Fox News reported.

Yale released a statement Thursday, stating:

“We recently decided that the Law School will require that any employment position it financially supports be open to all of our students. If an employer refuses to hire students because they are Christian, black, veterans, or gay, we will not fund that position. We are in the process of putting this policy in place. It will solely concern hiring practices. It will not inquire about political goals, litigation strategies, or policy objectives of the organization.”

Follow Neetu on Twitter