|
February 6, 2004
Union Of Orthodox Jewish
Congregations Joins Request To Supreme Court In Defense Of Boy
Scouts’ Civil Liberties
Today, the
Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America joined with
other religious and public interest organizations in submitting a
“friend of the court” brief to the U.S. Supreme Court in support
of a petition filed by the Boy Scouts of America (“BSA”). The
legal brief was authored by the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty.
The BSA has petitioned the high court to review and reverse a
ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit which
upheld a decision by the State of Connecticut to exclude the BSA
from its annual state employee charitable fundraising campaign in
the name of Connecticut’s “Gay Rights Law.”
Connecticut’s Campaign is made generally available to
organizations that fulfill “charitable and public health, welfare,
environmental, conservation or service purposes.” But, in the wake
of the Supreme Court’s June, 2000 decision recognizing BSA’s
constitutional right to exclude avowed homosexuals from its
leadership ranks, administrators of Connecticut’s charitable
campaign decided that BSA’s exercise of this right was
objectionable and that BSA should thus be excluded from the
hundreds of charitable organizations which benefit from the
campaign.
The legal brief supports the BSA’s petition by arguing that under
Supreme Court precedents, it is clear that the lower court’s
decision threatens the free association rights of religious
expressive organizations because membership policies are
indispensable to message control in expressive associations.
###
|
