Boo hoo for the Boy Scouts.

It seems that yet another public entity is breaking off its relationship with the Boy Scouts of America over the BSA's discriminatory policies. Even if we stipulate that private, religious organizations have the right to discriminate against gays and nonbelievers, I still find it impossible to sympathize with the BSA.

The BSA do not want to be a private, religious organization; they want to be a private, religious organization when it suits them. Unfortunately for them, the First Amendment mentions no such possibility. If they are private and religious under the assembly clause, they are also private and religious under the establishment clause. I said as much when Boy Scouts of America v. Dale was being publicly debated; people laughed at the time, but it turns out that I was right.