Rights of association

Here is a story from the LA Times on a California Court upholding Berkeley's anti-discrimination policy.

In BOY SCOUTS OF AMERICA et al. v. DALE (2000) the Supreme Court ruled that the Boy Scouts are free to keep gays from being scoutmasters, under the first amendment freedom of association guarantee.

Berkeley had provided a berth for Sea Scouts free, until the Scouts would not sign Berkeley's nondiscrimination policy. The Scouts sued. Thursday, a unanimous California Supreme Court ruled,

The state high court's decision gives cities and government agencies the ability to impose antidiscrimination conditions on any group that receives a public benefit. The ruling was one of a handful across the country in which courts have permitted government agencies to exclude the Boy Scouts from programs because the Scouts bar gays and atheists.

Further,

The case attracted widespread interest. Groups weighing in the litigation on behalf of the Sea Scouts included the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the National Catholic Committee on Scouting and the National Club Assn.

Supporting Berkeley were the League of California Cities and California Assn. of Counties, the Anti-Defamation League, the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights and three foundations of the American Civil Liberties Union.

Is this the same as the Military recruiting case in law schools, decided by the Supreme Court on Monday? In Rumsfeld v. FAIR (2006) the court ruled 8-0 that Congress was within its power to condition aid to higher education on letting military recruiters have the same access to interviewing law students as other potential employers. Law schools argued that the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy violated the law school's nondiscrimination policy -- in essence, Congress's Solomon Amendment gave the military special, not equal, access, in that the military did not have to promise to treat students in a nondiscriminatory manner.

Who is doing the discriminating -- the military? the law schools? Berkeley? the Scouts? Bottom line: if we give you money, or a benefit, we can place conditions on that benefit.