Expert: Michael Troy - 7/29/2003

Question
id like to find out if there are differents between american and british law according to the right of association of minorities and othes . if ill thank you if u link me to articles and ruling dealing with that subject .

sincerely yours,
libby  

Answer
Hi Libby,

I'm not really familiar with British law, so you may want to ask someone else about that.  However, I'm happy to discuss the American view.

There is no explicit right of associatio per se in the Constitution.  However, the Court has recognized two rights of assoication.  One is the right of people to develop personal relationships with one another, such as marriage.  The other, which I think is more what you are looking at, is the right of expressive association.  That is, the right of people to come together to express an idea, to protest, or to exchange views.

I'm not sure exactly what you are getting at with regard to specific rights of association with regard to minorities.  Certainly, they are covered by the same laws as the majority.  

There are substantial limitations of some rights of association.  For example, a person cannot have a racial exclusive place of public accomodation or employement simply because they do not wish to associate with members of other groups.  This applies to both an all-white establishment just as it would to an all-black establishment.

In recent years, the courts have given some greater strength associational rights, for example holding that a private group like the Boy Scouts may ban homosexual scout leaders or that political parties may limit primary voting to party members.

For more info, you may want to try these sites:

http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/data/constitution/amendment01/12.html

http://fact.trib.com/1st.association.html

I hope this helps!
- Mike