The Boy Scouts of America score a victory in the nation's highest court.

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled Wednesday the Scouts have the right to keep gays from serving as troop leaders. The justices said forcing the Scouts to accept homosexual leaders would violate the organization's First Amendment rights of free expression and free association.

The ruling stems from a New Jersey case, in which that state's Supreme Court ruled the Scouts violated a state anti-discrimination law by removing assistant scoutmaster James Dale.

Organization leaders had learned Dale was gay when he was identified in a newspaper article as a leader of a college gay and lesbian group.

Four of the nine justices dissented.