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Loading ...Fed court asks Calif. to weigh in on Boy Scouts case
01.07.2009 12:00pm EST
(San Diego, California) A federal appeals court has asked for a legal opinion from the California Supreme Court in a lawsuit over whether San Diego acted illegally in granting leases to the Boy Scouts of America.
At issue is whether the BSA is a religious organization, and if the leases violate the California constitution which ban governments from favoring religious groups.The decision by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to ask for a legal opinion from a state high court in a federal case is rare, but not unheard of.
The 9th Circuit is considering an appeal of a 2003 ruling that voided the Scouts’ leases based on the state rule.
The American Civil Liberties Union sued San Diego and the Boy Scouts of America over the leases on behalf of a lesbian couple and an agnostic couple, each with scouting-age sons.
The Boy Scouts has been the target of preferential treatment lawsuits since the U.S. Supreme Court in June 2000 ruled that the organization has a constitutional right to exclude openly gay men from serving as troop leaders and because it compels members to swear an oath of duty to God.
U.S. District Judge Napoleon Jones Jr. ruled in July 2003 that San Diego acted improperly when it leased 18 acres of Balboa Park camp space to the Scouts. The judge ruled that the group is a religious organization and the lease violated the federal establishment clause that prohibits the government promotion of religion.
The city’s action was an implicit endorsement of the Scouts’ “inherently religious programs and practices,” Jones ruled.
The same judge later ruled that the Scouts’ lease with the city for a separate aquatics center at Fiesta Island in Mission Bay Park also was illegal.
Jones said the city has shown preferential treatment to the Boy Scouts, “an admittedly religious, albeit nonsectarian, and discriminatory organization,” because it had negotiated exclusively with the Scouts for the lease of the aquatics center.
The Scouts had leased the half-acre Fiesta Island property since 1987 at no charge. The group spent $2 million to build the aquatics center and provided for its maintenance.
The Balboa Park camp was developed by the Scouts after World War II and in 1957 the group signed a 50-year lease with the city. The lawsuit was brought after the City Council voted to extend the lease for 25 years.
In 2006, the Scouts appealed to the 9th Circuit and a three judge panel in a split decision ruled to asked the California Supreme Court for an opinion.
The Scouts then asked for a review by the full 9th Circuit court. The full court declined to hear the case until the California justice weigh in. The high court has not indicated when it will issue a legal opinion in the case.
Former BSA national council member and author here. I was involved in opening all adult leadership postions to women and increasing access for youth with disabilities; left when I saw there would never be movement on the gay or atheist issues– where they REFUSE to serve youth. As long as 25% of the national council’s chaplain core is reserved for Mormon elders and 25% is reserved for Roman Cathlic priests, they will NOT be changing their religious tune. The BSA is the OFFICIAL youth organization for mormon boys.
I find the Boy Scouts’ official position on this rather amusing. I was a Boy Scout many decades ago, but I do remember that sexual experimentation was one of the more popular activities on camp outs, even if it wasn’t officially sanctioned. Perhaps the leadership needs a dose of reality.
This is about discrimination against gay and lesbian youth. The BSA is homophobic and wants to create their version of America, one which believes in one creed, and one way to love. I wish our community had chosen to protest the violence aimed at LGBT youth, instead of same-sex marriage rights, because we have all experienced such violence as youth but not all of us wish to be married. Also, there is more harm done to us when we are young, than as established adults.
Why does every media outlet — mainstream or gay — always ignore the real gay Boy Scout issue: discrimination against gay youth members.
http://www.interstateq.com/archives/3196/
Good one Chuck, I would have had to do the same. If I had ever reached that highest of rank,I too would have considered my Parents a “Higher Power”..!
Chuck, thank you for posting that. As a former Scout, I’m shocked that such things are on a site attributed to the BSA.
Now mind you, I’m Christian, but the scouts were never about just one form of religious belief.
The scout oath and law still ring in my ears.
A scout is ‘trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean, and reverent’
When I first joined scouting, the only one that had anything to do with god was the reverent thing, and the BSA didn’t pound that drum with any sort of regularity.
As a sign of the times, check *this* out:
http://www.scouting.org/Media/Relationships/ascoutisrevernt/ss04.aspx
Almost every point has been aligned with a bible reference.
What about scouts that are not christian?
What about scouts that are muslim?
What about scouts that don’t follow a particular faith?
Once upon a time, the scouting program was a program for boys, not just a program for christian boys. It breaks my heart to see what has been done to the scouting program over the many years since I used to pull on my elephant nose warmers.
What makes it worse, is that a scout who is trustworthy and comes forward as a gay scout, is outcast for dutifully following his conscience and heart. Then he is removed from his scouting family for essentially following the scout law!
Until the day the scouting program returns as something for ALL boys I think that the removal of city and state level support is entirely justified.
that’s really funny chuck! I love hoodwinking the religios nut jobs with better logic than they can handle.
Aleasha, ummm, English is in use here. I never read that the Boy Scouts are a religion, which is what you say is ridiculous (correctly), it is a religious organization. Like Catholic Charities, Knights of Columbus. Religion there is Catholic, organization something else!
The Boy Scouts are despicable in my opinion. Pushing people into the closet which as we know causes all kinds of abhorrent behaviour. Banning openly gay scout masters does not protect the little boys…pedophiles are not openly gay and likely not even gay!
Eagle scout from san diego here. At my eagle review, a panel of scout council reps asked me one question before they granted me my rank.
“Do you believe in a higher power?”
If I had said ‘No’, I would have been denied the rank that I spent my childhood striving towards. Luckily, at the time I considered my parents a ‘Higher Power’ so I was able to truthfully answer ‘Yes’ to the question.
The BSA is not a private religious organization. That is rediculous. When asked your religion, who answers, “I’m a Boy Scout!” That is just stupid. I am a proud Unitarian Universalist. People need to stop centering their entire lives on religion and start loving and accepting one another.
The BSA wants it both ways. They went all the way to the Supreme Court of the United States stomping their feet and demanding to be declared a private religious organization. They still want the taxpayer to fund their private little club – which also excludes athiests and kids from churches that accept gay people like the UUA and UCC churches.
They wanted it this way – they are a private religious organization. Let them be so.