Shelton v. Tucker

A third case dealing with the NAACP and the freedom of association came three years after Shelton. In National Association for the Advancement of Colored People v. Button (1963), the Court struck down a Virginia law preventing the NAACP from providing legal support in cases it was not a party to or in which it had no financial interest. The same year, in Gibson v. Florida Legislative Investigation Committee, the Court overturned the contempt conviction of an NAACP official who refused to testify about members' past or current relationship with the Communist Party.

In the 1980s, freedom of association cases moved away from racial equality and turned toward sexual equality. In a series of cases, the Court ruled that some previously all-male clubs and organizations had to let women join. The Court said that in those cases, society's interest in ensuring equal treatment of women outweighed the freedom of "expressive association"--association of people who share common values and seek to pursue a particular goal. The rulings affected the U.S. Jaycees, the Rotary Club International, and a private New York club.