A Right to Discriminate?

Should the Boy Scouts of America and other noncommercial associations have a right to discriminate when selecting their members?

Does the state have a legitimate interest in regulating the membership practices of private associations? These questions— raised by Boy Scouts of America v. Dale, in which the Supreme Court ruled that the Scouts had a right to expel gay members— are at the core of this provocative book, an in-depth exploration of the tension between freedom of association and antidiscrimination law.

The book demonstrates that the “right” to discriminate has a long and unpleasant history. Andrew Koppelman and Tobias Wolff bring together legal history, constitutional theory, and political philosophy to analyze how the law ought to deal with discriminatory private organizations.

Author Biography

Andrew Koppelman is John Paul Stevens Professor of Law and professor of political science at Northwestern University School of Law. He lives in Evanston, IL. Tobias Barrington Wolff is professor of law, University of Pennsylvania Law School. He lives in Philadelphia.