Two Massachusetts lawyers, Chester Darling, Citizens for the Preservation of Constitutional Rights, and Prof. Dwight Duncan, Southern New England Law School, were both principals in the writing of the Brief that won the decision in the U. S. Supreme Court for the Boy Scouts.

In addition, Darling’s civil rights organization filed its own brief in the case.

The case was merely a reaffirmation, says Darling, of his 9-0 victory in the South Boston parade case in 1995 where the high court overruled every Massachusetts court, both state and federal, all of which had ruled against Darling.

Prof. Duncan also assisted Darling in the South Boston case.

Darling said that what happened in the Boy Scout case was that the Supreme Court instructed the New Jersey courts that, "They could not hijack the mission of the Boy Scouts by forcing the inclusion of a Gay Scout leader who was intent on changing the message of the Boy Scouts."

He said that government cannot compel citizens to associate with or adopt the speech of persons whose values and messages they do not share.

Darling warned, "The decision today reinforces the need for citizens to be constantly vigilant against governmental intrusions into private organizations and attempts to homogenize the citizenry into the current political orthodoxy favored by some governmental officials, including judges."

Lynn Students Can Avoid Racial Assignments

Chester Darling, attorney for the civil rights organization that is suing to put an end to the use of race in student assignments by the Lynn public schools, has put out a call for more children to come forward and join the case.

"This will allow more of Lynn’s children to enjoy the benefits already received by the named parties in the suit," he said.

All of those plaintiffs have been accommodated by the City, said Darling. As soon as those children became plaintiffs, the City assigned them to the school of their choice, he says.

"The new school year is coming and the Court has yet to certify the ‘class’ of plaintiffs," said the well known Constitutional lawyer. "There is no reason why other students must continue in assignments that are not of their choosing while the Court delays certifying the class. Other children may immediately benefit from the City’s attempts to avoid an adverse verdict in this case," he said.

Court Fails to Rule on ‘Class Action’

In August of 1999, Darling’s civil rights organization, Citizens for the Preservation of Constitutional Rights, filed a suit in federal court on behalf of a multi-ethnic group of Lynn parents in an effort to put an end to Lynn’s use of race in denying children assignment within the Lynn Public Schools. The plaintiffs brought the case as a class action on behalf of all of the children within the Lynn Public Schools. Ten months later, the federal judge hearing the case still has not ruled on whether the case can go forward as a class action. Judge Nancy Gertner has not even set a date to hear arguments on whether the case can go forward as a class. In response to this inaction by the Court, CPCR has put out the call for more parents to come forward and join the case as individual plaintiffs. "We had hoped that through the class action we could gain transfers for all of the children who have been discriminated against. Now we have to obtain these transfers individually while we await the court’s decision on certifying the class," said Darling.

City Gives Transfers to All Plaintiffs

In reaction to the case, the City of Lynn has granted transfers to all of the original plaintiffs in the case to any school within the Lynn Public Schools they want. But Darling is concerned that other children in Lynn who have also been denied assignments because of their race have been left out of the process. "In the meantime these children will face another school year or two of discrimination," he says. "We hope that by adding additional plaintiffs, we can speed up the process of getting re-assignments for all the students in Lynn who have been denied assignments or transfers because of their race."

Atty. Darling’s organization has placed an ad in the Lynn Item asking any parent who feels that their children were denied an assignment or transfer to a Lynn Public School because of their race to join the lawsuit. CPCR is a non-profit law firm located in Boston, which is representing the Lynn plaintiffs pro bono.