Boy Scouts Of America V Dale Ruling

After the New Jersey Supreme Court ruled that the Boy Scouts may not exclude homosexuals from leadership positions, the Scouts were forced to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court to protect their First Amendment rights. CIR filed an

Brief urging the Court to respect the Scouts’ freedom of association. The High Court ruled in favor of the Scouts 5-4, setting an important precedent for the right of groups to choose their own membership.

“WHILE THE LAW MAY PROMOTE ALL SORTS OF CONDUCT IN PLACE OF HARMFUL BEHAVIOR, IT MAY NOT INTERFERE WITH SPEECH FOR NO BETTER REASON THAN PROMOTING AN APPROVED MESSAGE OR DISCOURAGING A DISFAVORED ONE, HOWEVER ENLIGHTED EITHER PURPOSE MAY SEEM.”The Supreme Court

Dale V. Boy Scouts Of America: Summary & Significance

The first major challenge to The Boy Scouts of America’s right of expressive association was levied by Rutgers student James Dale. The young Dale had joined the Boy Scouts of America in 1978 and reached the rank of Eagle Scout ten years later. When he applied to be an assistant scoutmaster in 1989, he was accepted immediately. But when Dale arrived at college, he acknowledged that he was gay. A newspaper published a picture of him at a meeting of the Lesbian and Gay Alliance, and one month later his membership in the Scouts was revoked.

Dale asked the Scouts why he had been ejected, and they confirmed it was because of his sexual orientation. In 1992, he sued the Monmouth County Scouts for expressley violating New Jersey’s common law and bans on discrimination. The New Jersey Superior Court’s Chancery Division granted summary judgment to the Boy Scouts, and Dale appealed. He won the next two decisions in Appeals and in the New Jersey Supreme Court.

Brief on the side of the scouts. The Court decided that the goals of the organization to instill values in young people gave them the right to use criteria for membership.

Boy Scouts Of America Update

By Terence J. Pell The Washington Post, August 23, 1999 The recent decision by the New Jersey Supreme Court striking down the Boy Scouts’ ouster of homosexual Scout leader James Dale was widely interpreted as…File Photo: Daniel Martino protests outside the Supreme Court as justices hear arguments in the case of New Jersey Boy Scout leader James Dale April 26, 2000...

In a controversial resolution released on Friday, the group proposed lifting its ban on gay scouts--a significant shift in policy for one of the nation’s largest and most prominent youth development institutions--while still maintaining its current position excluding gay adults as potential leaders. If approved, the policy would take effect on Jan. 1, 2014.

“No youth may be denied membership in the Boy Scouts of America on the basis of sexual orientation or preference alone, ” read the proposal released on Friday by the Boy Scouts of America, whose roughly 1, 400 National Council members plan to vote on the change at a meeting next month. But as for its adult leadership standards, the organization will “not grant membership to individuals who are open or avowed homosexuals, or who engage in behavior that would become a distraction to the mission of the BSA.”

The Boy Scouts Are No Longer Welcome At This Anti Gay Jamboree

The Scouts’ policy shift, which aims to strike a middle ground between positions held by gay rights advocates and those of its more conservative sponsors, immediately drew fire from LGBT advocates, who argued that the proposal did not go far enough.

Until every parent and young person have the same opportunity to serve, the Boy Scouts will continue to see a decline in both membership and donations, said Rich Ferraro, a spokesman for the gay-rights watchdog group GLAAD.

Chad Griffin, president of the Human Rights Campaign, voiced similar disappointment:  What message does this resolution send to the gay Eagle Scout who, as an adult, wants to continue a lifetime of Scouting by becoming a troop leader? he said.

An Elegy For The Boy Scouts

On the other side, the Scouts’ proposal of inclusion (however incomplete) could run the risk of alienating its conservative supporters, such as the Mormon Church and the Roman Catholic Church, which together sponsor groups enrolling about one-fourth of all scouts. LDS spokesman Michael Purdy did not offer an immediate reaction to the proposed resolution, but said only in a statement that Mormon leaders would “take the time needed to fully review the language and study the implications of this new proposal.” The National Catholic Committee on Scouting, which acts as an adviser to the Boy Scouts of America, declined to comment at this time.

The logic behind a policy that welcomes gay youths but not gay adults remains unclear, but OnMyHonor.Net--an organization that describes itself as a coalition of concerned BSA parents, Scoutmasters, Eagle Scouts and other Scouting leaders--offers a glimpse into the distrust of openly gay adults among the scouting community. Its website lists overt gay political activism, and open, public and inappropriate expressions of physical affection between homosexual boy scouts and adult gay scout leaders, as some of its concerns.

Other opponents find the policy's double standard on openly gay people too confusing. Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council, called the policy incoherent, in that it says, in essence, that homosexuality is morally acceptable until a boy turns 18–then, when he comes of age, he's removed from the Scouts.

Boy Scouts Of America V. Dale

Deron Smith, spokesman for the BSA, could not be reached to explain the group's reasoning behind treating gay youths differently from gay adults. But on Friday, the Boy Scouts did say their change in course was partially related to the findings of a February survey sent out to about one million members of the scouting community. What they found was that a majority of adults involved in scouting supported the past policy of excluding gay people, but that a majority of younger parents and teenagers opposed it. The study summary also said that many adults expressed particular concern about child safety and whether gay men were appropriate role models,

The Boy Scouts’ policy of discrimination toward gay people took center stage last year when Jennifer Tyrrell, a lesbian parent in Ohio, was dismissed as her 7-year-old son’s den leader. Since then, the issue of gay rights has taken an increasingly prominent place in the national dialogue. There are two same-sex marriage cases awaiting rulings from the Supreme Court. And a recent NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll found that the country was shifting toward embracing tolerance, with more Americans in favor of same-sex marriage, and more Americans making the assumption that people are born gay rather than choosing to be gay.

But for now, it looks like Tyrrell will have to wait for the Boy Scouts to catch up to public opinion. “One year after sending a letter ousting me as my son’s leader, the Boy Scouts are once again forcing me to look my children in the eyes and tell them that our family isn’t good enough, ” she said in a statement.James Dale, center, a Matawan, N.J. assistant scoutmaster who was kicked out of the Boy Scouts when leaders found out he is gay, flanked by Evan Wolfson, Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund senior staff attorney, right, and Lambda attorney David Buckel at a news conference Wednesday, Aug. 4, 1999. (AP Photo/Stuart Ramson)

Dadt Is Repealed, But Lesbians Still Can't Be Cub Scout Den Leaders

In Boy Scouts of America v. Dale, 530 U.S. 640 (2000), the Supreme Court ruled that the Boy Scouts of America had the expressive association right to revoke the membership of an assistant scoutmaster after he publicly announced his sexual orientation by leading a gay group at Rutgers University.

The Scouts revoked James Dale’s membership on the basis that the “the Boy Scouts ‘specifically forbid membership to homosexuals.’ ” Dale filed a complaint against the Scouts in New Jersey state court, alleging that this action violated the state’s public accommodations law.

The Boy Scouts responded that the First Amendment granted the organization the right to expressive association, allowing the Scouts to refuse employment to individuals who violated its moral code, because employing such individuals would impinge on the Scouts’ ability to impart that code to its members.

Boy Scouts' Proposal Says It's Ok To Be Gay Until You're 18

The New Jersey Supreme Court ruled in favor of Dale, holding that the forced inclusion of Dale would not significantly affect the Scouts’ ability to disseminate its message, as the Scouts did not associate to promote the message that homosexuality is immoral. The court added that any infringement on the Scouts’ right to expressive association was justified by the state’s compelling interest in preventing discrimination.

The New Jersey Supreme Court’s opinion was consistent with the expressive association doctrine the U.S. Supreme Court had developed in Roberts v. United States Jaycees (1984) and subsequent cases. The U.S. Supreme Court, however, reversed the lower courts’ holdings in a 5-4 opinion written by Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist.

The Court determined that Dale’s forced inclusion in the Scouts would significantly affect the organization’s right of expressive association. The Court found that groups do not have to associate for the purpose of disseminating a specific message to be entitled to First Amendment protection.

Boy Scouts Of America Lifts Ban On Gay Youth; 61 Percent Voted For Resolution

Further, even if the Boy Scouts discourages leaders from disseminating views on sexual issues, this does not negate the sincerity of its belief that homosexuality is immoral. Finally, the First Amendment

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