Government Subsidy of Boy Scouts? -Reply

[Daniel Conkle]

Perhaps so, but then again, the Court has been more reluctant to find
state action in recent years, and one could argue that the Court's
more expansive state-action rulings, including Burton, are
intrinsically linked to the context of *racial* discrimination.

Dan Conkle
********************************
Daniel O. Conkle
Professor of Law
Indiana University School of Law
Bloomington, Indiana  47405
(812) 855-4331
e-mail conkle at indiana.edu or
danconkle at law.indiana.edu
********************************

Andrew Koppelman writes:
The lease would certainly make the Scouts' discrimination state
action under Burton v. Wilmington Parking Authority.  That case
involved a state leasing space (at market rates, evidently) to a
restaurant that refused to serve blacks.  The Supreme Court said that
the discrimination was state action, hence prohibited by the
fourteenth amendment.


At 11:50 AM 3/26/98 EST, you wrote:
>        In view of the recent CA Supreme Court Decision indicating
that
>the BSA is a private organization not subject to the requirements of
the
>Unruh Civil Rights Act...   What are the listmembers thoughts on a
city
>leasing office space to the Boy Scouts for $1.00 per year?  Does
this
>sort of subsidy then make the government party to religious and
sexual
>orientation discrimination?  Of course, cities are always renting
spaces
>to various groups at below market rates.  I see the renting of
meeting
>rooms, parks, etc. as government providing a public forum for
discussion
>on a content neutral basis (and thus would be allowed to rent a room
for
>a meeting to a church that does discriminate based on religious
belief).
>However, is a multi-year lease for $1.00 per year a bit beyond that?
 No
>one else can use the space, so it seems different from the classic
>meeting room rental.
>        Comments?
>
>
>Harold
>

________________________________________

Andrew Koppelman
Assistant Professor of Law and Political Science
Northwestern University School of Law
357 East Chicago Avenue
Chicago, IL  60611-3069
(312) 503-8431
akoppelman at nwu.edu
________________________________________

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