Court: Scouts can bar gay troop leaders
06/28/2000
Associated Press
WASHINGTON – The Boy Scouts can bar homosexuals from serving as troop
leaders, the Supreme Court ruled Wednesday. The decision puts a limit on how
far the courts should go to force open admissions on private groups.
The 5-4 decision said forcing the Scouts to accept gay troop leaders would
violate the organization's rights of free expression and free association
under the Constitution's First Amendment.
"The Boy Scouts asserts that homosexual conduct is inconsistent with the
values it seeks to instill,'' Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist wrote for
the court. Requiring them to accept a gay scoutmaster "would significantly
burden the organization's right to oppose or disfavor homosexual conduct.''
The ruling reversed a New Jersey Supreme Court holding that the Scouts
wrongly ousted assistant scoutmaster James Dale when the organization learned
he was gay. The state court had said the Scouts' action violated a New Jersey
law banning discrimination in public accommodation.
Dale, who was an Eagle Scout, had sued the Scouts under the New Jersey law.
But the Supreme Court said Wednesday that that law must yield to the Scout
organization's right of "expressive association'' under the First Amendment.
The American Center for Law and Justice, a conservative advocacy group that
filed a friend-of-the-court brief supporting the Boy Scouts, said the ruling
"will have a dramatic impact on all private organizations &150; including
religious groups 7#150; to define their own mission and set their own
criteria for leadership.''
The Human Rights Campaign, a gay-rights organization, called the ruling a
"travesty of justice that may allow large, open-membership groups to be above
the law and evade state and local nondiscrimination laws.''
Rehnquist's opinion was joined by Justices Sandra Day O'Connor, Antonin
Scalia, Anthony M. Kennedy and Clarence Thomas.
Dissenting were Justices John Paul Stevens, David H. Souter, Ruth Bader
Ginsburg and Stephen G. Breyer.
Writing for the four, Stevens said the New Jersey law "does not impose any
serious burdens'' on the Boy Scouts' goals, "nor does it force (the Boy
Scouts) to communicate any message that it does not wish to endorse. New
Jersey's law, therefore, abridges no constitutional right of the Boy Scouts.''
Dale was 19 and an assistant scoutmaster of a Matawan, N.J., troop when in
1990 he was identified in a newspaper article as co-president of a campus
lesbian and gay student group at Rutgers University.
The Scouts' Monmouth Council revoked Dale's registration as an adult leader,
telling him the organization does not allow openly gay members. Dale sued,
contending the Scouts violated New Jersey's anti-discrimination law.
The New Jersey Supreme Court ruled in his favor, saying the expulsion was
based "on little more than prejudice.''
During oral arguments in April, the Scouts' lawyer, George Davidson, said the
group had a right "to choose the moral leaders for the children in the
program.''
The Scouts relied on a 1995 Supreme Court decision in which the justices let
the private sponsor of the Boston St. Patrick's Day Parade exclude a group of
gays and lesbians, saying parades are a "form of expression.''
Dale's lawyer, Evan Wolfson, said giving public accommodations the broad
freedom to exclude people who do not match their message could swallow the
civil rights laws.
Dale's attorneys cited Supreme Court decisions during the 1980s that let
states force the Jaycees and Rotary International admit women as full
members. The court also let New York City bar large private clubs from
discriminating against women and minorities.
Rehnquist's opinion said "it appears that homosexuality has gained greater
societal acceptance'' in recent times.
"But this is scarcely an argument for denying First Amendment protection to
those who refuse to accept those views,'' the chief justice wrote. "The First
Amendment protects expression, be it of the popular variety or not.''
The Supreme Court has dealt with gay rights infrequently. In 1996, the
justices struck down a Colorado measure that barred ordinances giving gays
legal protection from discrimination, such as in housing or employment. But
the court also has repeatedly turned away challenges to President Clinton's
"don't ask, don't tell'' policy on gays in the military.
Dale now lives in New York City and is advertising director for a magazine
for people who are HIV-positive.
Breaking national
news from A.P.
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