U.S. Jaycees v. Massachusetts Com'n Against Discrimination

• Decision Date: 03 April 1984
• Citation: 391 Mass. 594,463 N.E.2d 1151
• Parties: The UNITED STATES JAYCEES v. MASSACHUSETTS COMMISSION AGAINST DISCRIMINATION.
• Court: United States State Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts Supreme Court

Page 1151

463 N.E.2d 1151

391 Mass. 594

The UNITED STATES JAYCEES v. MASSACHUSETTS COMMISSION AGAINST DISCRIMINATION.

Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts,

Middlesex.

Argued March 7, 1983.

Decided April 3, 1984.

Carl D. Hall, Jr., Tulsa, Okl. (Maria J. Woodford, Boston, with him), for plaintiff.

Margaret L. Dale, Boston, for defendant.

Danielle E. deBenedictis, Boston (Robert S. Brintz, Boston, with her) for interveners.

Marjorie Heins, Boston and Dianne Foster, Melrose, for Massachusetts Civil Liberties Union Foundation & another, amici curiae, submitted a brief.

Before HENNESSEY, C.J., WILKINS, LIACOS, ABRAMS, NOLAN, LYNCH and O'CONNOR, JJ.

LYNCH, Justice.

This case presents the question whether the United States Jaycees (U.S. Jaycees) is a "place of public accommodation" within the meaning of G.L. c. 272, §§ 92A and 98. ¹ In a complaint brought before the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination (MCAD), fourteen women alleged that the U.S. Jaycees' and the Massachusetts Jaycees' men-only membership policies amounted to unlawful sex discrimination in violation of G.L. c. 272, §§ 92A and 98. On January 27, 1981, an MCAD Commissioner decided that the U.S. Jaycees and Massachusetts Jaycees each constituted a "place of public accommodation" as defined under G.L. c. 272, § 92A, and concluded that the refusal by these organizations to treat women as members of equal standing with men constituted a violation of G.L. c. 272, § 98. The Commissioner ordered that women be accorded equal membership status in both organizations, and that order was affirmed without modification on July 13, 1981, by a full vote of the MCAD. The U.S. Jaycees then filed a petition in the Superior Court pursuant to G.L. c. 151B, § 6, seeking review of the MCAD's final order. ² On July 29, 1982, a judge of the Superior Court reported the case to this court.

The U.S. Jaycees challenges the MCAD's order on several grounds. First, the U.S. Jaycees argues that the statutory category of a "place of public accommodation" was never meant to include nonprofit membership organizations such as the Jaycees. Further, it submits that if the MCAD's interpretation of the statutory language is upheld, this will result in an abridgement of the Jaycees' constitutional right to freedom of association, and, as so construed, G.L. c. 272, § 92A, would also be rendered void for vagueness. Finally, the U.S. Jaycees argues that the MCAD's application of the statute to the organization's national activities will result in impermissible extraterritorial effect being given to a law of Massachusetts. ³ We find it unnecessary, however, to consider any arguments beyond the first and most basic one which the U.S. Jaycees advances. Based upon the plain wording of G.L. c. 272, § 92A, and a survey of the relevant case law, we hold that the U.S. Jaycees is not a "place of public accommodation." In so holding, we direct that the order of the MCAD be reversed.

The facts of this case are not in dispute. The U.S. Jaycees is a tax-exempt nonprofit corporation organized under the laws of the State of Missouri, with its headquarters located in Tulsa, Oklahoma. It was incorporated in 1920 under the name United States Junior Chamber of Commerce. In 1965, it changed its name to The United States Jaycees. The U.S. Jaycees' by-laws define its purpose as follows: "This corporation shall be a non-profit corporation, organized for such educational and charitable purposes as will promote and foster the growth and development of young men's civic organizations in the United States, designed to inculcate in the individual membership of such organization a spirit of genuine Americanism and civic interest, and as a supplementary educational institution to provide them with opportunity for personal development and achievement and an avenue for intelligent participation by young men in the affairs of their community, state and nation, and to develop true friendship and understanding among young men of all nations."

There are several interlocking categories of membership in the U.S. Jaycees: local organization membership, State organization membership, individual membership, and associate membership. There are currently over 290,000 individual members of the U.S. Jaycees, each of whom also belongs to a State and a local Jaycees chapter.

The by-laws of the U.S. Jaycees provide that individual membership is limited to men between the ages of eighteen and thirty-five. Associate membership is available to persons (including women, and men over thirty-five) and to businesses that are not qualified to be individual members. An associate member can participate in all the programs offered by the organization, although such a member may not vote, hold office, or receive an award.

The ultimate policy-making body of the U.S. Jaycees is an annual convention, attended by delegates from each local chapter. These conventions have the authority to change the by-laws of the organization. At two conventions, in June, 1975, and June, 1978, the membership considered by-law revisions to admit women as individual members. On both occasions, the proposed revisions were defeated. In September, 1981, individual members of the U.S. Jaycees voted in a national mail referendum on the question of amending the by-laws to admit women as individual members at the option of local chapters. The amendment was defeated. The vote was 67% against and 33% for the amendment.

In 1975, after the rejection at the annual convention of the by-law amendment, the executive committee of the U.S. Jaycees established a pilot program to allow local chapters in up to five States to accept women as regular individual members of local and State chapters. Three jurisdictions, Alaska, District of Columbia, and Massachusetts voted to participate. Initially, the pilot program was authorized for six months. The program was terminated shortly after the rejection of the by-law amendment by the June, 1978 convention. On July 22, 1978, the U.S. Jaycees' president issued a statement that the membership by-law would be strictly construed and enforced, and that after December 1, 1978, State or local chapters which violated the by-law would face charter revocation by the U.S. Jaycees.

The U.S. Jaycees provides technical assistance, advice, training, and support to State and local chapters. This assistance is provided for recruitment, membership, and chapter organization as well as for programs and services. The actual choice and conduct of programs is left to the State and local organizations, which have authority to determine the programs and activities in which they will engage, so long as the activities are consistent with the general purposes of the U.S. Jaycees. The U.S. Jaycees is funded primarily through the collection of membership dues and privately sponsored programs.

In the past, the U.S. Jaycees maintained a Northeast regional office in Massachusetts, for which it rented office space in a building owned by the Massachusetts Jaycees. During that time, a full time U.S. Jaycees regional representative worked in the office. However, the U.S. Jaycees' operations in Massachusetts are currently limited to contacts and involvement with State and local Jaycees officials.

Local Jaycees chapters plan and implement an impressive array of community service programs and fund-raising activities. With the exception of certain projects that are sponsored by the national organization, these programs and activities are selected and carried out autonomously by the local chapters, with no need for prior approval by the State or national organization. From time to time, the U.S. Jaycees prepares and sends out informational material on possible projects and activities.

The projects which the Jaycees and their local chapters have sponsored include, inter alia, tot lots, Christmas parties, Boston harbor cruises for the elderly, a youth center in Winchester, a cleanup of the Back Bay area, a Special Olympics, a Fun Run for Muscular Dystrophy, a Boy Scout troop and the Massachusetts Youth Leadership Seminar. The Lowell Jaycees established a Jaycees housing corporation, which became the co-developer of a $3.7 million housing project for the elderly in Lowell. Participation in these programs was open to the general public on a nondiscriminatory basis. Men and women could and did run in the road race, go on the harbor cruise, and attend the Christmas parties.

The national, State, and local Jaycees organizations all devote considerable time and energy to the recruitment and retention of new members. Both the national and State organizations give awards in recognition of successful recruitment efforts. Nationally, over 150,000 new members are recruited each year.

1. In arriving at its conclusion that the U.S. Jaycees constitutes a "place of public accommodation," the MCAD candidly characterized this result as "not self-evident," noting that "[a] membership organization is certainly different from the traditional places of public accommodation, such as an inn or restaurant." Yet, by employing a somewhat tortuous analysis, the MCAD's ensuing review of the U.S. Jaycees' activities in fact yielded the opposite result, i.e., the inclusion of the organization within the statutory category of a "place of public accommodation."

To start with, the MCAD observed that the State and local Jaycees chapters certainly do meet in physical "place[s]" within Massachusetts, albeit a large number of different ones. Since a "sufficiently strong nexus" exists between the U.S. Jaycees and the State and local organizations, when the latter two meet at a "place" within Massachusetts, it can be hypothesized that the national organization is meeting at that "place" also. The membership of the U.S. Jaycees is demonstrably "public": all males who are between the ages of eighteen and thirty-five and who pay the dues are admitted to the organization. If the assumption...