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Overview
Boys Scouts Discrimination Case
The Case of the Month for June addresses the U.S. Supreme Court decision that allowed the Boys Scouts of America to legally bar homosexuals from becoming scout leaders. The web feature also will discuss the resulting backlash against the Scouts in South Florida that led to a vote by the Broward County School Board to evict 57 Boy Scout and Cub Scout packs from school grounds. The following two legal issues will be explained in greater detail (1) an organization's right to exclude members who don't share or advocate their particular viewpoints and (2) the extent to which a government entity such as a school board must accommodate such a group, even if the group's policies violate the school's non-discrimination policies.
The Boy Scouts of America's mission is to instill the values of its "Sacred Oath" and "Law" in its members. "A Boy Scout's Sacred Oath is to do his best, to do his duty to God and country, to obey the Scout law, to help other people, to be physically strong, mentally awake, and morally straight. The Boy Scout Law is to be trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean, and reverent." In its position statement, the Boy Scouts say that: "The Boy Scouts of America has emphasized traditional family values since the inception of the movement. We believe avowed homosexuals do not provide a role model for Scouts that is consistent with the values of the Scout oath and Law. Accordingly, the Boy Scouts of America does not accept avowed homosexuals as members or leader[s]."
The group's ban against homosexuals was addressed by the Supreme Court in a decade-long discrimination case called Boy Scouts of America v. Dale.
James Dale lived in New Jersey and was an Assistant Scoutmaster for the Boy Scouts. When a newspaper interviewed Dale about homosexual teenagers' need for male role models and published his picture over a caption identifying him as the co-president of the local Lesbian/Gay Alliance, the Scouts sent him a letter revoking his membership. Because New Jersey state law prohibits discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation in places of public accommodation, Dale sued the Scouts to force it to reinstate him and pay him damages. Ultimately, the case reached the United States Supreme Court.
The Supreme Court in June 2000 ruled that a State (in this case the State of New Jersey) has a compelling interest to enforce its anti-discrimination laws, but the enforcement of these laws cannot come at the expense of "materially interfering" with the Boy Scouts' First Amendment right to expressive association. Expressive association is the right to associate with others in pursuit of political, social, economic, educational, religious, and cultural ends. In other words, the Court said the Boy Scouts' right to express their views against homosexuality would be hampered if the organization was forced to admit openly gay people as leaders.
Because the Supreme Court determined that the Boy Scout's official position on homosexuality is protected by the First Amendment and that the presence of an openly gay scoutmaster in the Boy Scouts would materially interfere with its right to associate with people who share that position, the Supreme Court held that New Jersey may not use its public accommodations laws to force the Boy Scouts to reinstate Dale.
The decision in Boy Scouts of America v. Dale was very controversial, and many Americans became angry that the Supreme Court allowed the Boy Scouts to discriminate against homosexuals. Consequently, some school districts across the country that previously had given the Boy Scouts special advantages in the use of school facilities tried to keep the Boy Scouts off of school grounds by banning them from using public facilities and/or rejecting their funding requests.
One case in particular involves the Broward County School Board's decision in December 2000 to evict 57 Boy Scout and Cub Scouts from school grounds. The school district approved a five-year partnership agreement with the Boy Scouts in 1998. In the agreement, the Boy Scouts agreed to provide educational programs that complement and enhance the public school curriculum, while providing students with career mentors. In exchange for this, the School Board allowed them to utilize school facilities during after school hours, to use school buses for their sponsored activities at a special non-profit rate, and to recruit members from the student body. The School Board required ? as outlined in the agreement ? that the Boy Scouts not discriminate against any participant on the basis of several criteria, including sexual orientation.
After Boy Scouts of America v. Dale was decided in June 2000, the Broward County School Board voted to terminate the contract. Because the School Board allows other groups such as the Brownies and church groups to use the school facilities, the Boy Scouts felt singled out, and sued to force the School Board to give them the same rights and privileges it gives all of the other groups. The Boy Scouts filed this case, Boy Scouts of America v. Frank L. Till, in Miami District Court in late 2000.
The Boy Scouts filed for a preliminary injunction to force the School Board to allow the Boy Scouts to use its facilities until the case is decided. On March 21, Judge Donald M. Middlebrooks granted the injunction, stating that the Boy Scouts' arguments -- contending that the school district discriminated against the Scouts' freedom of expression and equal access to public facilities -- have substantial legal merit and that the Boy Scouts are likely to prevail.
