A turf war between the Girl Scouts of the United States of America and the Boy Scouts of America over the use of the term “scouting” in recruitment efforts was tossed out by a federal judge on Thursday.
Manhattan federal Judge Alvin Hellerstein dismissed a lawsuit that claimed that the Boy Scouts’s use of “scouting” among other terms to describe efforts to promote its new co-ed programs would confuse girls attempting to join the Girl Scouts.
“The Boy Scouts adopted the Scout Terms to describe accurately the co-ed nature of programming, not to confuse or exploit Girl Scouts’ reputation,” Hellerstein wrote in his ruling in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. “Such branding is consistent with the scout-formative branding Boy Scouts has used for a century, including in its co-ed programs that have existed since the 1970s.”
The legal battle began in 2018, a year after the Boy Scouts announced it would allow girls to join some scouting programs, marking a shift from a decadeslong tradition of being an all-boys organization. The Boy Scouts rebranded its recruitment program as “Scouts BSA.”
‘GROUND WAR’: FEUD BETWEEN BOY SCOUTS AND GIRL SCOUTS INTENSIFIES
“The Boy Scouts have the right to describe their activities as ‘scouting,’ without reference to gender, that there are no issues to be tried,” Hellerstein wrote.
The Girl Scouts plans to appeal and said in a statement the case “is about ensuring that parents are not misled into thinking that Girl Scouts are part of or the same as the Boy Scouts.”
The Boy Scouts’s legal win comes amid the organization’s bankruptcy battle. The group seeks approval for its reorganization plan, which would allow it to continue operating and settle a number of child sex abuse claims.
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The Boy Scouts was first founded in 1910, and Girl Scouts followed two years later in 1912.
