Trachtman Speaks Out Against Scouts' Exemption from Anti-Discrimination Law in National Law Journal Article

"Court Sends Scouts Wrong Message" is the title of an article written by Kramer Levin partner Jeffrey Trachtman that appears in the July 31, 2000 issue of The National Law Journal. Trachtman criticizes the Supreme Court's recent decision to exempt the Boy Scouts of America from New Jersey's anti-discrimination law in the dispute over the expulsion of James Dale, an adult junior scoutmaster, on the basis of his revelation of his sexual identity. 

Trachtman argues that the decision "distorts decades of civil rights and First Amendment law to hold that requiring admission of disliked minority group members somehow forces a public accommodation to engage in undesired 'symbolic speech.'" Since the Scouts do not actually "teach" that homosexuality is wrong and Mr. Dale's presence would not have threatened the values that actually bring the group's members together (e.g., honesty, service, respect for diversity), Trachtman concludes that the exclusion "had nothing to do with speech. It was plain old status-based discrimination, something that New Jersey has concluded is harmful and against public policy."

Kramer Levin filed a brief in the Supreme Court on behalf of the American Public Health Association and other groups in support of Dale's challenge to the Scouts' exclusion. Marvin Frankel, Jeffrey Trachtman, Kerri Ann Law, Norman Simon, and Anna Moody worked on the matter.