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Lahmann v. Grand Aerie of Fraternal Order of Eagles10/12/2005
ng the act will not violate the members' right of expressive association because admitting women will not require the Eagles to send a message contrary to one of the organization's core values, and, even if it did, that interference with associational rights would be justified by the state's compelling interest in eliminating gender discrimination.
The dissent declares that "the import" of our decision "is that females must now be admitted to male-only social organizations and males must be admitted to female-only social organizations, or those establishments are in violation of the law." ___ Or App ___ (Edmonds, J., dissenting) (slip op at 1). We disagree. The decision stands only for the proposition that a business or commercial enterprise in Oregon that is otherwise open to the public does not have a constitutional right to discriminate on the basis of gender, and that, in fact, such discrimination violates the Oregon Public Accommodations Act. At this stage in the evolution of our political community, laws permitting the opposite of that conclusion would be cause for alarm.
Affirmed.
EDMONDS, J., dissenting.
I dissent from the majority's opinion for several reasons, as explained in more detail below. At the heart of the issues in this case are the rights of members of either gender to associate with only that gender. The import of the majority's decision is that females must now be admitted to male-only social organizations and males must be admitted to female-only social organizations, or those organizations are in violation of the law. That result is contrary to Oregon statutes, the Oregon Constitution, and the federal constitution for the reasons that follow.
With regard to the applicability of Oregon's Public Accommodations Act, ORS 30.670 through ORS 30.685, the majority reasons,
"The Eagles' second argument for reconsidering our holding in Lahmann I is based on legislative history, and it reduces to the following proposition: When the act was first passed and when it was amended, private fraternal organizations had a well-established, legislatively recognized presence; the sponsors of the act and those who voted on it knew that fact, and they explicitly averred that the act would not apply to those organizations. It would, however, apply to organizations that called themselves private clubs only as a ruse to avoid allowing African-American patrons or members. The short and sufficient refutation of that argument is this: The trial court found as fact, and the Eagles do not deny, that, due to their nonselective membership practices, their organization is de facto open to the public. Nothing in the legislative history of the act implies that its framers intended to exempt such organizations."
___ Or App at ___ (slip op at 9).
The majority's conclusion that nothing in the legislative history of the 1973 amendments to the P
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