The Scouting Legal Defense Fund was created to protect Scouting through legal action and public education. The Fund is chaired by former United States Attorney General Edwin Meese who is assisted by a distinguished National Advisory Board.

The Scouting Legal Defense Fund is a project of the American Civil Rights Union (ACRU) which is dedicated to defending all of the rights in the Constitution. In this respect, it differs significantly from organizations such as the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) which defends only some constitutional rights and even then only as they interpret them.

The current attack on Scouting dramatically illustrates this difference. In Boy Scouts of America v. Dale, the ACRU filed a legal brief strongly supporting the Scouts. The ACLU filed a brief opposing the Scouts' right to set and maintain their own standards.