Scouts to Argue Important San Diego appeal next week

Boy Scouts of America ^ | 2/12/06 | BSA

[bnelson44]

On Tuesday, February 14, 2006, the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit will hear oral arguments in an appeal by Boy Scouts of a case brought by the ACLU against Boy Scouts of America, San Diego-Imperial Council, and the City of San Diego. The case is Barnes-Wallace v. Boy Scouts of America.

The City of San Diego has over 100 leases with nonprofit organizations for little or no cash rent in exchange for the organizations' developing the properties and making them available for public use. The City leases two properties to San Diego-Imperial Council—parkland in Balboa Park, where Scouts built and manage Camp Balboa at their own expense, and a half-acre of parkland on Fiesta Island in Mission Bay Park, where Scouts built and manage the San Diego Youth Aquatic Center, also at their own expense. Both properties are used extensively on a first-come, first-served basis by the public as well as by Scouts. Plaintiffs, represented by the ACLU, have never even tried to use Camp Balboa or the Youth Aquatic Center.

The federal district court in San Diego invalidated the leases to San Diego-Imperial Council, concluding that that they violated the Establishment Clause because, despite the open use of the properties by the public, Scout members themselves promise in the Scout Oath to do their "duty to God."

Boy Scouts are expected to argue that leasing to San Diego-Imperial Council does not violate the Establishment Clause but terminating the leases because of Scouting's values would violate the First and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution. Read the Scouts' appeal.

The Civil Rights Division of the United States Department of Justice also will argue in support of the Scouts. Here is the federal government's amicus brief.

[bnelson44]

[Camel Joe]

Imagine the day when we drag the lawyers through the streets and hear their lamentations. Cry as they might there will be no saving them from the hot tar and feathers.

[TheBattman]

Oh- great, The Nineth Circus.... I guess we all know where this one is headed...

[CheyennePress]

"We hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness -- That to secure these Rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just Powers from the Consent of the Governed, that whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive to these Ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its Foundation on such Principles and organizing its Powers in such Form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness."

I've begun to look at our court system and honestly question whether our courts truly recognize their right to rule only through the power and whether they are indeed destructive to our rights when they legislate from the bench.

This situation with the Boy Scouts and similar organizations has led me to question this even more.

[RonF]

So, they'll lose in the 9th Circuit and then go to the Supremes. I think they'll get a more sympathetic hearing there.