## Facts

- The Boy Scouts of America (BSA) is a private, nonprofit youth organization that teaches values through the Scout Oath and Scout Law.
- James Dale was an Eagle Scout and served as an assistant scoutmaster.
- After Dale publicly identified as gay and became involved in gay-rights advocacy, BSA revoked his adult membership.
- BSA stated that “homosexual conduct” was inconsistent with its values, including that Scouts be “morally straight” and “clean.”
- Dale alleged that the revocation violated New Jersey’s public accommodations law barring discrimination based on sexual orientation.

## Issues

1. Whether applying New Jersey’s public accommodations law to require BSA to readmit Dale as an assistant scoutmaster violates BSA’s First Amendment right of expressive association.
2. Whether compelled inclusion of an unwanted member can constitutionally be required when the organization asserts the person’s presence would interfere with the group’s message.

## Decision

- The U.S. Supreme Court reversed the New Jersey Supreme Court (5–4, Rehnquist, C.J.).
- The Court held that applying New Jersey’s public accommodations law to require BSA to admit Dale violated BSA’s First Amendment right of expressive association.
- The Court concluded BSA was an expressive association and accepted BSA’s assertion that opposition to homosexual conduct was part of its message.
- The Court found that requiring Dale’s continued service as an adult leader would likely be understood as BSA’s acceptance or tolerance of homosexual conduct, significantly affecting BSA’s ability to express its chosen views.
- The Court held that New Jersey’s interest in eliminating discrimination, though important, did not justify this intrusion into BSA’s internal membership decision.

## Legal Principles

- The First Amendment protects an organization’s freedom of expressive association against government action compelling acceptance of unwanted members when their presence would significantly affect the group’s ability to express its viewpoints.
- Courts generally defer to an association’s description of its own message and its judgment about what would impair that message, rather than requiring the message to be stated explicitly in formal writings.
- Public accommodations laws may be applied to private groups, but they are unconstitutional as applied when they force membership or leadership inclusion that materially burdens the group’s expressive activity.

## Conclusion

The Court held that New Jersey could not use its public accommodations law to compel BSA to retain Dale as an adult leader because forced inclusion would significantly interfere with BSA’s asserted expressive message, violating the First Amendment right of expressive association.


Boy Scouts of Am. v. Dale, 530 U.S. 640 (2000)