Rotary Club of Duarte v. Board of Directors of Rotary International

Incredibly, 14 years before the start of the 21st century and 210 years after the signing of the Declaration of Independence we still find ourselves having to write an opinion defending the right of American women to equal opportunity in a secular organization of approximately 20,000 clubs with more than 900,000 members.

Specifically, we are called upon to decide whether the Board of Directors of Rotary International (Board) may lawfully revoke the charter of the Rotary Club of Duarte (Duarte) and terminate its membership in Rotary International (International) because Duarte admitted women into its club.

To do this we must decide whether the male-only-membership policy of International violates the Unruh Civil Rights Act (Unruh Act) (Civ. Code, § 51). Also presented for resolution in this case is the question of whether International’s policy of excluding women from club membership violates article 1, section 8 of the California Constitution.

International, a nonprofit organization incorporated in the State of Illinois, is the association of local Rotary clubs worldwide. Each individual Rotarían is a member of his local club, not of International. These local clubs…