Jury selection got under way Monday in a gay rights case that could settle a long-running dispute between local Boy Scouts and the city of Philadelphia.

At issue is whether the local scouts group, the Cradle of Liberty Council, should be allowed to stay rent-free in its city-owned headquarters, despite the Boy Scouts of America’s national policy banning gays.

Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter says to get free rent, the local Scouts needed to renounce the national Scout organization’s admission policies excluding gays.

The lawsuit filed by the Scouts contends that the mayor’s demand violates their First Amendment rights.

The city has an ordinance saying that groups can’t discriminate based on sexual orientation, and it says the Scouts can rent their space, but can’t get free office space.

The Scouts haves occupied the downtown building since 1928.

Reports Philly.com:

The Republican-majority Senate Judiciary Committee voted 8-6 to table a bill introduced by Sen. John Eichelberger (R) to amend the constitution to define marriage as being between a man and woman only.

The vote came before a packed hearing room without debate.

Committee Chairman Stewart Greenleaf (R) said he brought the bill up for a vote, even though he was uncertain it would pass, to let members express their opinion on it. He called the vote a referendum on gay marriage, and said the measure would not come up again this session.

Three republicans crossed the aisle to defeat the bill. Opponents of the bill called the vote a victory for gay rights.

SB 707, which Eichelberger introduced earlier this week, would add to the Pennsylvania Constitution the language: “Only a union of one man and one woman shall be valid and recognized as marriage.”

Eichelberger, a Republican, announced his intention to spearhead such an initiative in May 2009. Democratic Sen. Daylin Leach shortly thereafter introduced a measure that seeks to legalize same-sex marriage in the Keystone State.

To amend the constitution, both chambers of the state legislature would have to pass the so-called Marriage Protection Amendment in two consecutive sessions before the question is posed to voters.

“Pennsylvania voters have the opportunity to decide how they want marriage to be defined and not allow an activist judge to make that decision for them,” Eichelberger said in a statement Tuesday. “Thirty-one other states have already gone through a similar process and in each state, the definition of marriage was upheld.”

Even if successful, any marriage amendments before state legislatures could soon be moot, as the federal case challenging California’s Proposition 8 could eventually bring the constitutionality of same-sex marriage to the U.S. Supreme Court — whose ruling would take precedence across the nation.