The Boy Scouts held that this violated their First Amendment right of expressive association. The Boy Scouts of America believe an avowed homosexual is not a role model for the values espoused in the Scout Oath and Law.
The right of association is utterly the most important principle in the issue of the Boy Scouts of America and their right to be selective in their requirements of leadership. The Boy Scouts have the right to assemble with whomever they choose. However, do they have the right to exclude potential leaders that are avowed homosexuals just based on their sexual orientation and not their personal dexterity or aptitude. This would be another example in which the principle applies to this controversy. Are the scouts actually discriminating against homosexuals or do they just simply deny them leadership positions because they do not represent the ethics of the scouting organization?.
It is the position of the Boy Scouts of America that, as stated by Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist, "The Boy Scouts asserts that homosexual conduct is inconsistent with the values it seeks to instill. [Requiring the Scouts to accept homosexual scoutmasters] would significantly burden the organization's right to oppose or disfavor homosexual conduct." (Religioustolerance.org) So by that demarcation the scouts are not discriminating against homosexuals. Discrimination, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, is the action of discriminating; distinguishing, making or constituting a distinction, or affording a ground for distinction. The Boy Scouts of America has not once tried to prove any kind of distinction. They purely exclude homosexuals based on their beliefs and values not because they are homosexual. A very little know fact is that the Boy Scouts of America also do not allow membership to atheists or agnostics because of the factors of reverence and religion in the scouting organization.