James Dale

The Boy Scouts of America have a right to exclude openly gay men from their ranks, the Supreme Court ruled on a 5-4 vote Wednesday. Because the Scouts are a private group that seeks to instill its moral values in boys, the organization is free to bar those whose behavior or lifestyle conflicts with its message, the court said.

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The highest court in New Jersey ruled unanimously Wednesday that the Boy Scouts of America must admit homosexuals. The decision was a victory for James Dale, an assistant scoutmaster who was expelled from the organization nine years ago after it was revealed that he is gay. The seven-judge Supreme Court ruled that Dale's dismissal violated New Jersey's antidiscrimination law. It was the first time a state supreme court has ruled against the Scouts in cases involving homosexuality.

"The City Different" is just that. Where else do residents covet dirt roads and protest that paving will reduce real estate values? Where else does it seem entirely reasonable? Time to read. Time to actually read something without rushing, something more than a few pages long, and maybe, just maybe, something that will make what's happening around us appear to make sense. If you're going to have such an opportunity this summer, as I just did, let me make some recommendations.

Sixty years after the Scopes Monkey Trial established Darwin's theory of evolution through natural selection in school curricula and the public consciousness, a new group of Doubting Thomases is taking aim at his doctrine of "survival of the fittest." The challenge is coming not from biblical Creationists, but from scientists themselves, who gathered in Fullerton last week for a conference to try to reconcile advances in molecular biology, genetics and physics with Darwinism.

In a setback for the Boy Scouts, the Supreme Court turned away a free-speech challenge to a Berkeley policy that denies city-subsidized dock space to a Scouting group because it excludes gays and atheists. The court's action lets stand rulings in California and elsewhere that have said cities, schools and colleges may deny public benefits to groups that refuse to comply with broad nondiscrimination rules involving religion and sex orientation.

Sixty years after the Scopes Monkey Trial solidly established Darwin's theory of evolution through natural selection in school curricula and the public consciousness, a new group of Doubting Thomases is taking aim at his doctrine of "survival of the fittest." The challenge is coming not from Biblical Creationists, but from scientists themselves, who gathered in Fullerton this week for a two-day conference to try to reconcile advances in molecular biology, genetics and physics with Darwinism.