The “Out” in “Scouting”

On Wednesday, the Supreme Court ruled 5-4 that the Boy Scouts’ ban on gay scouts and scoutmasters is protected by the First Amendment. Last fall, Slate’s Dahlia Lithwick described  the oral arguments heard by the justices. Earlier that year, Geoffrey Wheatcroft counseled that if the Scouts want to purge homosexuals from their ranks, they ought to have started with their founder, Lord Baden Powell.