Boy Scouts of America v. Dale
2000 United States Supreme Court case
Boy Scouts of America et al. v. Dale, 530 U.S. 640 (2000), is a landmark decision of the U.S. Supreme Court, decided on June 28, 2000, which held that the constitutional right to freedom of association allowed the Boy Scouts of America (BSA) to exclude a homosexual person from membership in spite of a state law requiring equal treatment of homosexuals in public accommodations. More generally, the court ruled that a private organization such as the BSA may exclude a person from membership when "the presence of that person affects in a significant way the group's ability to advocate public or private viewpoints". In a 5–4 decision, the Supreme Court ruled that opposition to homosexuality is part of BSA's "expressive message" and that allowing homosexuals as adult leaders would interfere with that message.
The ruling reversed a decision of the New Jersey Supreme Court that had determined that New Jersey's public accommodations law required the BSA to readmit assistant Scoutmaster James Dale, who had come out and whom the BSA had expelled from the organization for that reason. Subsequently, the BSA lifted its bans on gay scouts and gay leaders in 2013 and 2015, respectively.
Background
The Boy Scouts of America is a private, non-profit organization engaged in instilling its system of values in young people. At the time of the case, it asserted that homosexuality was inconsistent with those values.
When Dale was a student at Rutgers University, he became co-president of the Lesbian/Gay student alliance.
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