Jacob E. Gersen & Jeannie Suk Gersen, The Six Bureaucracy (Harvard Public Law Working Paper 25-20, 2025).
Abstract: This Essay provides a clear regulatory history of Title VI. We explain how a statute that does not prohibit discrimination on the basis of religion came to be understood to prohibit discrimination against Jews and Arab Muslims, and to protect against antisemitism and Islamophobia. We explain what it means to deploy the Title IX playbook for Title VI, namely how nonbinding regulatory guidance is used to accomplish widespread changes in the policies, procedures, and bureaucratic structures of colleges and universities. Finally, we explore the particular challenges of channeling the Title IX playbook into Title VI to attempt to drive antisemitism and Islamophobia away from campuses.