Boy Scouts of America v. Wyman

213 F. Supp. 2d 159, 2002 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 14123, 2002 WL 1758408
CourtDistrict Court, D. Connecticut
DecidedJuly 23, 2002
Docket3:00CV1047 (WWE)
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 213 F. Supp. 2d 159 (Boy Scouts of America v. Wyman) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. Connecticut primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Boy Scouts of America v. Wyman, 213 F. Supp. 2d 159, 2002 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 14123, 2002 WL 1758408 (D. Conn. 2002).

Opinion

RULING ON CROSS-MOTIONS FOR SUMMARY JUDGMENT

EGINTON, Senior District Judge.

This action arises from a declaratory ruling requested by the Connecticut State Employees Campaign Committee (“Committee”), and issued by the Connecticut Commission on Human Rights and Opportunities (“CHRO”), regarding whether the Committee must permit the Boy Scouts of America, and Connecticut Rivers Council, Boy Scouts of America, collectively a private organization that may legally discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation (“BSA”), the opportunity to participate in the state’s workplace charitable campaigns. The CHRO issued its declaratory ruling to the Committee, to the effect that the state would be in violation of Connecticut’s Gay Rights Law if the Committee were to retain the BSA in its campaign. The BSA initiated this litigation to enjoin the Committee from excluding it from the *162 Year 2000 Campaign and future campaigns, and to ensure its receipt of state donations already directed to it in the 1999 state campaign.

The BSA alleges that the defendants have violated its rights of freedom of speech and freedom of association protected by the First and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution, under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 (Count 1); violated its rights under § 5-262-3(k) of the Regulations of Connecticut State Agencies by disallowing the BSA to participate in the Campaign without a decision by the CHRO on whether the Boy Scout membership policies violate a Connecticut anti-discrimination statute (Count 2); violated its rights under Conn. Gen.Stat. § 46a-81r by “condoning homosexuality,” and “requiring the teaching in educational institutions of homosexuality as an acceptable lifestyle” (Count 3); and violated its rights under Conn. Gen.Stat. § 46a-81a by discriminating against the BSA for showing a “preference for heterosexuality,” and penalizing the BSA for excluding open homosexuals from leadership positions (Count IV).

Pending before this Court are cross-motions for summary judgement by the BSA; by Nancy Wyman, et al. (collectively referred to as defendant “Committee”); and by the CHRO, as intervenor-defen-dant. For the reasons set forth below, the Boy Scout’s motion for summary judgment will be denied. The motions for summary judgment of the Committee and of the CHRO will be granted.

FACTS

The Connecticut legislature has sanctioned an annual workplace campaign (“Campaign”) to raise funds from state employees for charitable and public health, welfare, environmental, conservation, and service purposes. The Campaign is administered by a State Employee Campaign Committee established by law. The Committee members are determined by statute and include: the State Comptroller or her designee; the Commissioner of Administrative Services, or his designee; the Executive Director of the Joint Committee on Legislative Management or his designee; ten state employees; and two retired state employees. The statute also provides for nonvoting members who represent each participating federation in the Campaign. All parties concur that the Committee is a state actor.

The Campaign is a workplace solicitation of state employees that is conducted during working hours using non-coercive methods that permit voluntary giving, and reserve to the individual the right to disclose any gift or to keep it confidential. The Campaign is conducted from September to November each year. Committee members who are current state employees continue to be paid their state salaries while they work on the Campaign during normal business hours. State employees make their voluntary contributions from the list of participating organizations set forth in the Campaign booklet entitled “Directory of Charitable Organizations” which is distributed at the workplace. The BSA was listed in the Directory for the 1999 and 2000 campaigns.

State employees make their voluntary gifts by payroll deduction. Any state officer or employee wishing to make a voluntary campaign donation must make a written request to the Comptroller to permit a payroll deduction for his or her donation from such officer’s or employee’s wages or salary. The amount deducted is collected by the Comptroller and transmitted to the principal combined fund-raising organization, usually a United Way, that administers the campaign for the state.

Organizations can participate in the Campaign by submitting an application in the form prescribed by the Comptroller to the Committee on or before January 15 *163 annually. The application requires applicants to provide various specific information to establish eligibility for participation in the campaign. The required Campaign documentation that is particularly relevant to this litigation reads, in pertinent part, as follows:

a document signed by an officer or the executive director of a federation, certifying ... that the federation maintains on file the following documents for itself and for each member agency ...: (vii) a written policy of non-discrimination.

Member organizations of participating federations file their Campaign applications with their parent federations where such applications are thereafter maintained. The parent federation files an application with the Committee attesting to its member organizations’ compliance with all of the Committee’s requirements. The Committee, acting through a subcommittee designated as the application review committee, reviews all applications for completeness and for compliance with eligibility standards. The Committee’s regulations also provide for the removal of a federation or one of its member agencies from a campaign, if that federation or member agency fails to adhere to the eligibility requirements or the policies and procedures of the Campaign. If a member agency’s eligibility to participate in the Campaign is withdrawn by the Committee, the federation may not distribute any funds raised in the Campaign to such agency.

The plaintiff Connecticut Rivers Council, Boy Scouts of America, is a private, nonprofit organization chartered by the Boy Scouts of America to support scouting in the Connecticut counties of Litchfield, Hartford, Windham, New London, and Middlesex. Connecticut Rivers Council and three other Connecticut councils are member agencies of local chapters of the United Way in Connecticut. The Connecticut councils of the BSA applied to the Committee to participate in the Campaign. In those applications, the BSA affirmatively answered that it had a written policy of nondiscrimination. In 1999, all four Boy Scout councils received donations from the Campaign directly earmarked for them by individual donors, and upon application to their local United Way, received funds from the pool of donated funds received by the United Way chapters in Connecticut.

Although the BSA certified to the Committee that it did not discriminate, the BSA adopted a position, memorialized in its writings as long as ten years ago, that is allegedly inconsistent with Connecticut’s nondiscrimination policy based upon sexual orientation.

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Related

Boy Scouts Of America v. Wyman
335 F.3d 80 (Second Circuit, 2003)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
213 F. Supp. 2d 159, 2002 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 14123, 2002 WL 1758408, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/boy-scouts-of-america-v-wyman-ctd-2002.