Boy Scouts of America v. Dale (2000)

In 1978, James Dale joined Boy Scout Troop 73 of Matawan, New Jersey at the age of eight. After ten years and a journey through the various levels of Scouting, Dale was awarded the Eagle Scout Badge, a high honor achieved by only a minute fraction of Scouts. Soon after being awarded the Eagle Scout Badge, Dale was offered adult membership in the Boy Scouts. In addition, he was invited to become assistant scoutmaster of Troop 73. After graduating high school, Dale went on to study at Rutgers University. While there, he attended a gay-lesbian youth needs seminar, which the Boy Scouts of America officials discovered through media coverage of the event (Boy Scouts). After news of Dale’s participation, he was abrubtly dismissed from the organization with no immediate explanation. Sometime later, Dale received a letter explaining that “avowed homosexuals” are not allowed in the BSA (Hanley).

After receiving confirmation that he was kicked out of the BSA due to his homosexual nature, Dale sought legal action. Dale began by contacting BSA officials to review his expulsion but was denied a hearing. Next, Dale and his lawyers filed a suit against the BSA with the charge that the BSA and Monmouth Council violated New Jersey’s Law Against Discrimination. Dale’s case was then dismissed by Superior Court Judge Patrick J. McGann. Judge McGann wrote, “Men who do those criminal and immoral acts cannot be held out as role models.” Later, the intermediate appeals court reversed the superior court, ruling that the BSA is a place of public accommodation because it claims to be open to all boys. Because of this determination, the BSA is not exempt from civil rights laws. In January of 1999, Dale’s attorney argued the case before the New Jerse...

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...sexuals, but also need to see that they should not fear discrimination in any public facet of their lives that is protected by law. It is increasingly important that cases such as these wrongly decided be argued again so that those individuals relating to this case may be heard and those ten-years-ancient values be realigned.

Works Cited

"BOY SCOUTS OF AMERICA v. DALE." Oyez. IIT Chicago-Kent College of Law, 2011. Web. 20 Feb. 2014.

"Boy Scouts v. Dale: Case History." Lambda Legal. Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund, 2005. Web. 20 Feb. 2014

"FindLaw | Cases and Codes." FindLaw | Cases and Codes. Thomson Reuters, 2014. Web. 20 Feb. 2014.

Hanley, Robert. "Appeals Court Finds in Favor Of Gay Scout." The New York Times. The New York Times, 02 Mar. 1998. Web. 20 Feb. 2014.

"Public Accommodation." State of New Jersey. State of New Jersey, n.d. Web. 21 Feb. 2014.