(EXCLUSIVE VIDEO) Ted Cruz: Senate to investigate Yale Law

In an exclusive Campus Reform interview, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) left open the possibility of referring Yale Law School to the U.S. Department of Justice for criminal prosecution or civil action amid an investigation into the Ivy League’s alleged discrimination of Christians. 

That statement comes after Cruz sent a letter asking the school to turn over documents related to that matter. 

Cruz’s inquiry specifically focused on a new financial aid policy at Yale Law that offers stipends and loan forgiveness to students who go on to work at certain law firms. 

[RELATED: Cruz closes in on Yale, demands key docs on alleged faith discrimination]

Watch the full interview:

(story continues below the video)

The school enacted the policy amid pressure from leftist students after a conservative Christian lawyer from the nonprofit legal organization Alliance Defending Freedom accepted an invitation to speak on campus about the Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission Supreme Court case. 

The students reportedly called ADF a “hate group that does not belong on our campus and does not deserve legitimization.” 

Yale Law School Dean Heather Gerken responded to the students by saying that the “nondiscrimination policy will extend to the Summer Public Interest Fellowship (SPIF), Career Options Assistance Program (COAP), and our post-graduate public interest fellowships.”

In April, Cruz sent a letter to Yale instructing the school to retain all documents related to the matter, threatening further investigation. 

”In the meantime, if Yale Law School decides to alter its position and cease discriminating against religious students and organizations, please let me know, “ Cruz wrote. 

But Yale Law School did not alter its policy. 

On April 4, Cruz sent the school a separate letter requesting the aforementioned documents. In response to Cruz’s letter, Yale General Counsel Alexander Dreier defended the university’s policy. 

”The Law School does not discriminate on the basis of religion, and in fact the policy your letter inquires about protects our students from discrimination of all kinds, including religious discrimination,” Dreier stated, adding that “the Law School’s policy does not single out students or organizations based on their religion.” 

”The policy is sharply focused on an organization’s employment policies; it does not draw lines based on religion, ideology, litigation or advocacy strategy, or political goals. It protects all our students, including Christian students, from discrimination,” Dreier adds. 

”We want to first lay out the facts,” Cruz told Campus Reform Tuesday while discussing the investigation.

Cruz noted that federal civil rights protections forbid discrimination on the basis of one’s religious faith: “And Yale gets very substantial amounts of federal funds and if they’re going to take the federal funds they need to comply with the federal civil rights protections.” 

According to a recent Campus Reform analysis, Yale University as a whole received $541.6 million in federal research funding in 2017. 

[RELATED: NUMBERS DON’T LIE: Trump’s free speech executive order could cost colleges billions]

The senator later went on to lay out three possible outcomes of this investigation. 

”One thing the investigation could result in, it could result in legislation. It could result in legislation making the protections even clearer and more explicit,” Cruz said, although he then added, that “to be honest, that legislation is not likely to pass this Congress.”

Cruz said that another result of the investigation could be executive action by President Donald Trump. A third outcome that the senator said is “certainly possible” is that the Constitution subcommittee, on which he serves, could refer the matter to the Department of Justice for criminal prosecution or civil action, “depending on what the facts are and what we discover.”

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