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The BSA is a private organization. Their status as a private organization vs. public accomodation has been litigated in 5 states. In each case, the highest court to rule on the subject has ruled them to be a private organization, invalidating any contradictory findings by a lower court.

It's interesting to compare this situation with that in some public schools. As you might recall, some public schools started to deny local units the right to use their facilities on the basis that the BSA discriminated against homosexuals and atheists, in violation of those schools' non-discrimination policies. In response, Congress added an amendment to the latest education act; schools that did this would from now on lose their federal funding. So, the practice has stopped. OTOH, the schools can charge units the same rates they charge any other not-for-profit (NFP).

It seems to me that the Berkeley City Council has every right to charge Ship 42 the same docking fee as any other NFP. It may very well be that there is no other NFP that owns a boat and pays a docking fee. In which case the upper limit would seem to be what they charge a private party.

This talk of "Breach of Contract" sounds interesting. Was there any kind of agreement that the BSA would get preferential treatment in perpetuity due to providing fill for the marina? There are cases like this all over the country. Very often the BSA has put buildings and other improvements into public facilities in exchange for preferential use of those facilities. Now people decrying the BSA's policies want to remove those privileges, without recognizing that the BSA is owed consideration for what the money, time, and labor they have provided the public.

It's as if they think that since the BSA doesn't allow "avowed" gays or atheists as members, nothing about the BSA is good, and it deserves to have everything it has earned or paid for taken from it, and to be cut off from the public. It is, in fact, not at all far fetched to think that there are deliberate attempts to bleed it dry; the death of a thousand cuts.

It seems to me that the Berkeley City Council has every right to charge Ship 42 the same docking fee as any other NFP. .... the upper limit would seem to be what they charge a private party.

It's as if they think that since the BSA doesn't allow "avowed" gays or atheists as members, nothing about the BSA is good, and it deserves to have everything it has earned or paid for taken from it, and to be cut off from the public. It is, in fact, not at all far fetched to think that there are deliberate attempts to bleed it dry; the death of a thousand cuts.

Which is what Chad and I were trying to tell you on Salon "TableTalk", Ron: These are not nice people, under the rubric that "People who are nice to you but rude to the waiter, are not nice people."

Nice to see you again, and I think you got it right both times. No obligation on the part of Berkeley to treat the Scouts differently than other eleemosynary groups (taking a pass on the marina-fill issue), and no obligation on the Scouts to do what Berkeley's political leadership manifestly wants them to do.

On the whole, maybe the divorcement is a good thing. Maybe at the most basic level it's simply true, that Berkeley doesn't deserve the benefits of scouting, which ought to be redirected to other, nearby communities that appreciate Scouts and scouting instead.