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'Religious' Boy Scouts Being Pushed out of Park NewsMax.comThe Boy Scouts’ policies barring homosexuals and requiring members to express a belief in God has resulted in a U.S. District Court judge ruling that the venerable organization’s long-standing lease of public land in San Diego's Balboa Park violates what he refers to as constitutional "separation of church and state," a phrase that appears nowhere in the U.S. Constitution.
U.S. District Judge Napoleon Jones Jr. found by "overwhelming and uncontradicted evidence" that the Boy Scouts are a religious organization and received preferential treatment by the city council as to its perennial lease of the 18-acre camp at the park. "The city handpicked as the preferred lessee an organization that describes religious belief and practice as fundamental to the services it provides," Jones wrote. The city and the Boy Scouts say other groups are allowed to use the camp, which has been used by the Scouts since 1920 and under a formal lease with the city since 1957. Jordan Budd, legal director for ACLU's San Diego office, has argued that the most reasonable remedy would be for the city to cancel its lease with the organization – or the Scouts could change their policies. "We believe it is long past time for the City Council to end its affiliation with this discriminatory organization and to keep open this public park land for the use of all citizens of San Diego on a fair and equal basis and not just those citizens preferred by the Boy Scouts," he said. Jones' ruling comes three years after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the Boy Scouts have a constitutionally protected right of "expressive association," allowing the organization to exclude gay members. Jesse Choper, a professor with UC Berkeley's Boalt Hall School of Law, remarked that Jones' decision demonstrates that organizations like the Boy Scouts are "entitled to express their views and associate in any way they wish, but they're not entitled to preference." American Civil Liberties Union sued the city and the Boy Scouts of America over the lease in August 2000 on behalf of a lesbian couple and an agnostic couple, each couple with a son. It is unclear what the immediate impact of the ruling would be because the city and the Scouts could appeal, reported the San Diego Union. The issue is made more complex by the Scouts’ multimillion-dollar improvements made over the years. According to the report, the final fate of all will be outlined in a final court order, which has yet to be formally published.
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