Supreme Court Takes Case On Boy Scouts' Ban on Gays

By Mark Walsh

Washington

The public schools will be interested bystanders as the U.S. Supreme Court considers whether the Boy Scouts of America has a First Amendment right to exclude homosexuals.

The court announced Jan. 14 that it would hear the Boy Scouts' appeal of a New Jersey Supreme Court ruling that organized Scouting is a public accommodation under state law and thus cannot discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation.

A key element of the decision last year by New Jersey's highest court was that Boy Scout groups have close relationships with the public schools for recruitment of new members and...