It had been a hangover from the anti-communist panic of the McCarthy era, when hundreds of professors were hauled before Congress or fired by their universities under suspicion of left-wing beliefs or affiliations. Congress wanted to show that the government would no longer meddle in university employment decisions, so it exempted higher education from the Equal Pay Act of 1963 and from Title VII, which prevented job discrimination on the basis of sex, race, ethnicity, or religion.
