Attorney Says Boy Scout Case in Connecticut May Influence Future Cases

By Rusty Pugh
AFR News
August 2, 2000

(AgapePress) - A pro-family attorney says the recent Supreme Court decision in the Boy Scout case could have a trickle-down effect.

A state agency in Connecticut determined last May that the Boy Scouts were in violation of the state’s discrimination laws. As a result, they were dropped from a list of charities that state workers can support through their payroll deduction plan. The Scouts claim that it is because of their opposition to homosexuality. But a federal judge in Connecticut ruled in favor of the Boy Scouts, ordering that they be put back on the list of charitable organizations.

AFA Center for Law and Policy Attorney Brian Fahling says this was the result of the recent Supreme Court decision, which is having a ripple effect.

"The Supreme Court decision...said [in effect] that the constitutional right of free association and the right to believe as one wishes overrides any state laws that might circumscribe that right or might interfere with that right," Fahling says. "The recent Boy Scout decision...reaffirmed those settled principles."

"What we have now is a court that has recognized that [decision] and said...the state cannot discriminate against the Boy Scouts under any state provision," he says. "[The state] must allow them...to be presented [on equal footing] with other charitable organizations to the employees of that state for them to choose."

Fahling believes the high court’s decision could have an effect on future cases dealing with private organizations, and their right to freedom of association.

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