Opinion ID: 1897530
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Scout Law

Text: A Scout is TRUSTWORTHY. A Scout tells the truth. He keeps his promises. Honesty is a part of his code of conduct. People can always depend on him. A Scout is LOYAL. A Scout is true to his family, friends, Scout leaders, school, nation, and world community. A Scout is HELPFUL. A Scout is concerned about other people. He willingly volunteers to help others without expecting payment or reward. A Scout is FRIENDLY. A Scout is a friend to all. He is a brother to other Scouts. He seeks to understand others. He respects those with ideas and customs that are different from his own. A Scout is COURTEOUS. A Scout is polite to everyone regardless of age or position. He knows that good manners make it easier for people to get along together. A Scout is KIND. A Scout understands there is strength in being gentle. He treats others as he wants to be treated. He does not harm or kill anything without reason. A Scout is OBEDIENT. A Scout follows the rules of his family, school, and troop. He obeys the laws of his community and country. If he thinks these rules and laws are unfair, he tries to have them changed in an orderly manner rather than disobey them. A Scout is CHEERFUL. A Scout looks for the bright side of life. He cheerfully does tasks that come his way. He tries to make others happy. A Scout is THRIFTY. A Scout works to pay his way and to help others. He saves for the future. He protects and conserves natural resources. He carefully uses time and property. A Scout is BRAVE. A Scout can face danger even if he is afraid. He has the courage to stand for what he thinks is right even if others laugh at him or threaten him. A Scout is CLEAN. A Scout keeps his body and mind fit and clean. He goes around with those who believe in living by these same ideals. He helps keep his home and community clean. A Scout is REVERENT. A Scout is reverent toward God. He is faithful in his religious duties. He respects the beliefs of others. In its briefs below and to this Court, Boy Scouts claims that the language morally straight and clean in the Oath and Law, respectively, constitutes a rejection of homosexuality. The Boy Scout Handbook, supra, at 551, defines morally straight as follows: To be a person of strong character, guide your life with honesty, purity, and justice. Respect and defend the rights of all people. Your relationships with others should be honest and open. Be clean in your speech and actions, and faithful in your religious beliefs. The values you follow as a Scout will help you become virtuous and self-reliant. The Boy Scout Handbook also defines clean: A Scout is CLEAN. A Scout keeps his body and mind fit and clean. He chooses the company of those who live by these same ideals. He helps keep his home and community clean. You never need to be ashamed of dirt that will wash off.... There's another kind of dirt that won't come off by washing. It is the kind that shows up in foul language and harmful thoughts. Swear words, profanity, and dirty stories are weapons that ridicule other people and hurt their feelings. The same is true of racial slurs and jokes making fun of ethnic groups or people with physical or mental limitations. A Scout knows there is no kindness or honor in such mean-spirited behavior. He avoids it in his own words and deeds. He defends those who are the targets of insults. [ Id. at 561.] Although one of BSA's stated purposes is to encourage members' ethical development, BSA does not endorse any specific set of moral beliefs. Instead, moral fitness is deemed an individual choice: Morality ... concerns the principles of right and wrong in our behavior, and what is sanctioned by our conscience or ethical judgment. ... In any consideration of moral fitness, a key word has to be courage. A boy's courage to do what his head and his heart tell him is right. And the courage to refuse to do what his heart and his head say is wrong. [ Scoutmaster Handbook, supra, at 71 (emphasis added) (additional internal quotations omitted).] BSA also does not espouse any one religion, explaining in the Scoutmaster Handbook that [t]here is a close association between the Boy Scouts of America and virtually all religious bodies and denominations in the United States. Id. at 227. Consistent with its nonsectarian nature, BSA Bylaws require respect [for] the convictions of others in matters of custom and religion. Boy Scouts encourages no particular affiliation, [and does not] assume[ ][the] functions of religious bodies, ibid.; indeed, in a training manual entitled Scoutmaster Fundamentals prepared for Scoutmasters, Assistant Scoutmasters, Troop Committee members, and parents, BSA categorically states: Religious instruction is the responsibility of the home and church. A large and diverse group of religions that subscribe to many different and sometimes contradictory beliefs sponsor BSA units throughout the United States. Some of those sponsors have participated in this case as amici curiae, taking a variety of positions in respect of homosexuality, i.e., that homosexuality is immoral; that discrimination based upon sexual orientation is to be strongly condemn[ed]. BSA, however, encourages its leaders to refrain from talking about sexual topics. Although the Boy Scout Handbook, supra, at 528, contains a subchapter entitled Sexual Responsibility which states that [f]or the followers of most religions, sex should take place only between married couples, sexual topics are not formally discussed during Boy Scout activities. Rather, BSA believes that boys should learn about sex and family life from their parents, consistent with their spiritual beliefs. 2. Boy Scout Troops In 1992, of the five million members of BSA, approximately one million youths and 420,000 adults were involved in the Boy Scout division. Those members belonged to over 44,000 Boy Scout troops throughout the country. According to the Boy Scout Handbook, id. at 2, a boy may become a Boy Scout if he has completed the fifth grade, or ... has earned the Arrow of Light Award, or [is at least] 11 years of age but not yet 18 and [c]omplete[s] the Boy Scout joining requirements. The Boy Scout joining requirements call for the applicant to: Submit a completed Boy Scout application and health history signed by [a] parent or guardian. Repeat the Pledge of Allegiance. Demonstrate the Scout salute, sign, and handclasp. Show how to tie the square knot. Understand and agree to live by the Scout Oath, the Scout Law, the Scout motto, the Scout slogan, and the Outdoor Code. Describe the Scout badge. With [a] parent or guardian, complete the exercises in the pamphlet How to Protect Your Children from Child Abuse and Drug Abuse. Participate in a Scoutmaster conference. [ Id. at 4.] Adult applicants are also subject to joining requirements. They must be recommended by the troop representative and approved by the local council, and they must subscribe to the Declaration of Religious Principle, [3] the Scout Oath and the Scout Law. Once an adult member is approved, that person is also qualified to be a leader. Boy Scouts explains that the terms adult membership and adult leadership.... are interchangeable ... since adults ... have no other reason to join apart from leadership in service to boys. B. James Dale James Dale first became a BSA member in 1978 when, at the age of eight, he joined Monmouth Council's Cub Scout Pack 142. He remained a Cub Scout until 1981, when he became a member of Boy Scout Troop 220, also in Monmouth Council. He joined Monmouth Council's Boy Scout Troop 128 in 1983, and Troop 73 in 1985. Until his eighteenth birthday in 1988, he remained a youth member of Troop 73. Dale was an exemplary scout. Over the ten years of his membership, he earned more than twenty-five merit badges. In 1983, he was admitted into Boy Scouts' Order of the Arrow, the organization's honor camping society, and achieved the status of Virgil Honor. The pinnacle of Dale's career as a youth member came in 1988, when BSA awarded him an Eagle Scout Badge, an honor achieved by only the top three percent of all scouts. Dale's participation in Boy Scout leadership began at an early age. Throughout his years as a member, Dale was an assistant patrol leader, patrol leader, and bugler, and from 1985 to 1988, Dale served as a Junior Assistant Scoutmaster for Troop 73. He was also invited to speak at organized Boy Scout functions, such as the Joshua Huddy Distinguished Citizenship Award Dinner, and attended national events, including the National Boy Scout Jamboree. On March 21, 1989, Dale sought adult membership in Boy Scouts. Monmouth Council and BSA accepted and approved his application for the position of Assistant Scoutmaster of Troop 73 where he served for approximately sixteen months. At about the same time that Dale applied for adult membership, he left home to attend Rutgers University. While at college, Dale first acknowledged to himself, and to his family and friends, that he was gay. Shortly thereafter, he became involved with, and eventually became the co-president of the Rutgers University Lesbian/Gay Alliance. Then, in July 1990, Dale attended a seminar that addressed the psychological and health needs of lesbian and gay teenagers. The Star-Ledger interviewed Dale and published an article on July 8, 1990 that discussed the seminar. The article included Dale's photograph and a caption identifying him as co-president of the Rutgers University Lesbian/Gay Alliance. Kinga Borondy, Seminar Addresses Needs of Homosexual Teens, Star-Ledger (Newark), July 8, 1990, § 2, at 11. Later that month, Dale received a letter from Monmouth Council Executive James W. Kay, revoking his BSA membership. The letter asked Dale to sever any relations [he] may have with the Boy Scouts of America, and granted Dale sixty days to request a review of his termination from the Monmouth Council Regional Review Committee. Dale wrote to Kay on August 8, 1990, and requested the basis for the Monmouth Council's decision. In a letter dated August 10, 1990, Kay notified Dale that the grounds for [his] membership revocation were the standards for leadership established by the Boy Scouts of America, which specifically forbid membership to homosexuals. [4] On September 30, 1990, Dale wrote a letter to the Northeast Regional Director, Rudy Flythe, asking for a review of his membership decision and a copy of BSA's leadership standards. Dale also requested permission to attend the review, a right to which he was entitled under the Monmouth Council Review Procedures. The Regional Review Committee acknowledged receipt of Dale's request, but neglected to provide him with a copy of the BSA standards for leadership or a review date. In another letter dated October 16, 1990, Dale once again asked for a copy of the leadership standards and notice of the review date. On November 27, 1990, Charles Ball, the Assistant Regional Director of the Northeast Region, notified Dale that the Northeast Region, [BSA] Review Committee supports the decision of the Monmouth Council ... to deny your registration with [BSA], and granted Dale thirty days to seek review by the National Council Review Committee. Three weeks later, through counsel, Dale wrote to the Chief Scout Executive of BSA and requested a rehearing and an opportunity to attend the review. BSA's counsel informed Dale on December 21, 1990, that he had been denied the right to attend because: [BSA] does not admit avowed homosexuals to membership in the organization so no useful purpose would apparently be served by having Mr. Dale present at the regional review meeting. BSA did agree, however, to have the National Council review Dale's membership revocation. Because Dale believed that a National Council review would be futile, he initiated these legal proceedings.