Boy scouts+Princeton University+Bob Jones U

[Rick Duncan]

I continue to be amazed by this thread. The Boy Scouts
have been labeled repeatedly as an evil, homophobic,
monopolist, and now Sandy describes "Republican
Governor Whitman" as a conservative. Beam me up,
Scotty. (-:  Rick Duncan

--- Sandy Levinson <LEVINSON at JURIS.LAW.NYU.EDU> wrote:
> If I may be allowed one "war story":  My career as a
> lawyer, such as it has been, was certainly capped by
> my representing, beginning in a Princeton traffic
> court and ending up in the US Supreme Court, a
> member of the US Labor Party who was charged with
> trespass by Princeton University because, though an
> "uninvited stranger" (my term, not Princeton's), he
> was passing out political leaflets to students on
> the Princeton campus.  We won our suit before the
> New Jersey Supreme Court, which held that the New
> Jersey Constitution protected our client's access to
> the campus.  It was relevant, I believe, that
> Princeton had described itself as a "haven for the
> loneliest dissenter" and had invited the world to
> come onto campus to enjoy its museums, sports teams,
> etc.  Quite remarkably, the University, represented
> by former Attorney General Nicholas deB. Katzenbach,
> appealed to the US Supreme Court, claiming that the
> New Jersey decision violated Princeton's rights
> under the First Amendment.!
>   I.e., "academic freedom" meant, according to the
> Princeton trustees--incidentally, a lot of faculty
> were furious at the University's insistence on
> pressing the appeal--that it had absolute control
> over whose ideas were welcome on the campus.
> (Needless to say, at oral argument, there was much
> discussion of the putative right of Notre Dame to
> bar proponents of abortion rights, though I refused
> to concede that they had such a right insofar as
> that meant barring access to potential voters in
> forthcoming elections.  Much of my argument was
> based on "company town" analogies.)
>
> The US Supreme Court properly dismissed the case as
> moot, since the Universitin fact had had the wisdom
> to change its absurd rule and to provide a
> structured mode of access by uninvited strangers.
> But assume that Princeton had held firm and said
> that strangers were invited to come onto the campus
> unless they wished to spread ideas not approved by
> the Princeton administration.  Would the defenders
> of the Boy Scouts also be willing to argue that the
> New Jersey Supreme Court made a mistake in forcing
> Princeton to accept the presence on its campus of
> Chris Schmid or of the hypothetical Nazi or
> Holocaust denier who wishes to pass out his/her
> wares and that the US Supreme Court should have
> interpreted the First Amendment to accord with
> Katzenbach's remarkable view of the First Amendment?
>  Incidentally, I fully realize that the analogy is
> imperfect on a number of grounds.  One might well
> compare Dale to a faculty hire, and I do not believe
> that Princeton (or a state university) is f!
> orbidden to engage in all sorts of content- and
> viewpoint-based criteria in deciding who can teach.
> Still, it is important to recognize that the Boy
> Scouts case did not arise in New Jersey by mere
> happenstance.  The New Jersey Supreme Court has a
> quarter-century-long record of being wary of
> exclusionist barriers against peaceful, well-behaved
> "Others."  (By the way, it's also probably worth
> commenting that the New Jersey Supreme Court that
> decided Dale includes many (perhaps a majority of)
> appointees of Republican Governor Whitman, so its
> reading of the law cannot easily be explained by
> reference to "liberals" versus "conservatives."  I
> presume that this further makes it unlikely that
> George W. ("Call me the fighting true conservative
> against the centrist wimp John McCain") Bush will
> choose the Governor as his running mate should he be
> in a position to exercise such a choice.
>
> Final aside:  Do you think any of the Bush's
> advisors told him that Bob Jones University
> generates, shall we say, certain associations
> vis-a-vis racial equality?  Or has BJU decided,
> after all, that blacks and whites might indeed date
> and, indeed (and not "God forbid") intermarry?
>
> Sandy Levinson
>

=====
Rick Duncan
Welpton Professor of Law
University of Nebraska
College of Law
Lincoln, NE 68583-0902
(402)472-6044
(402)472-5185 FAX
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