Washington
The Boy Scouts of America cannot be forced to accept homosexuals as Scout leaders, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled today.
In a 5-to-4 decision, the justices overturned a ruling by the Supreme Court of New Jersey that the Boy Scouts had violated a state antidiscrimination law when it expelled an assistant scoutmaster in 1990 after learning he was gay.
“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’s majority. Requiring the charity to accept a homosexual Scout leader “would significantly burden the organization’s right to oppose or disfavor homosexual conduct,” he wrote. Mr. Rehnquist was joined in his opinion by Justices Anthony M. Kennedy, Sandra Day O’Connor, Antonin Scalia, and Clarence Thomas. Dissenting were Justices Stephen G. Breyer, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, David H. Souter, and John Paul Stevens.
The decision was a significant victory for one of the nation’s biggest charities. With more than five million members and $270-million in private support, the Boy Scouts ranks No. 17 on The Chronicle‘s Philanthropy 400 list of the charities that raise the most from private sources.
“This decision allows us to continue our mission of providing character-building experiences for young people, which has been our chartered purpose since our founding,” the charity said in a statement posted on its Web site.
But the ruling was a huge loss for civil-liberties organizations and gay-rights groups that had sided with the State of New Jersey, as well as for the assistant scoutmaster who sued the charity, James Dale.
“The Court’s decision permits the Boy Scouts to hide their discrimination behind the First Amendment and rejects the right of New Jersey to create a just society for its citizens,” said Ralph G. Neas, president of the People for the American Way Foundation, a group that had supported Mr. Dale’s position.
Mr. Dale, now 29, had achieved the coveted rank of Eagle Scout. His sexual orientation had never been raised as an issue while he was a Scout. But after he was identified in a newspaper article as a member of a local homosexual-rights group, he received a letter from the Boy Scouts telling him that he had been expelled.
New Jersey’s antidiscrimination law forbids places of “public accommodation,” such as hotels and restaurants, from discriminating on the basis of sexual orientation.
Mr. Dale sued the organization in 1992 under that law, arguing that the organization should be considered a public entity, in large part because government agencies such as police and fire departments routinely sponsor local troops.
Throughout the court battle, the Boy Scouts argued that its decision to expel Mr. Dale was protected by the First Amendment rights of freedom of association and freedom of expression. The charity has excluded homosexuals since it was founded in 1910. Homosexuality, the group argues, is immoral and runs counter to the Boy Scouts’ ethical code requiring members to be “morally straight.”
In its opinion, the Supreme Court majority concluded that the antidiscrimination law did violate the organization’s Constitutional rights.
New Jersey’s interests in preventing discrimination “do not justify such a severe intrusion on the Boy Scouts’ rights to freedom of expressive association,’' the majority said.
In a dissenting opinion, Justice Stevens wrote that New Jersey’s law does not impose any serious burdens on the Boy Scouts’ efforts to accomplish its mission, “nor does it force BSA to communicate any message that it does not wish to endorse.’'
Today’s decision is likely to have implications for Boy Scout troops across the country, where the anti-gay policy has already attracted controversy (The Chronicle, May 4).
Some government agencies that had sponsored local Scout troops, as well as such supporters as local United Ways and some corporations, have already ended their affiliations with the organization in recent years over the policy, and others are likely to follow suit, observers say.
However, the decision is also likely to strengthen support for the group among some religious and conservative groups. The Scouts receive significant financial aid from the Mormon Church and the Roman Catholic Church, which have supported the anti-homosexual policy.
“Yes, there have been foundations and United Ways who have removed funding,” says Gregg Shields, national spokesman for the Boy Scouts of America. “But in almost every case, that funding has been replaced by donations from individuals who support our positions.”