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Scouts unbowed by Berkeley bullies
Orange County Times ^ | Feb. 28, 2003 | Harold Johnson

Posted on 02/28/2003 2:36:31 PM PST by laureldrive

Edited on 04/14/2004 10:05:53 PM PDT by Jim Robinson. [history]

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1 posted on 02/28/2003 2:36:31 PM PST by laureldrive
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Comment #2 Removed by Moderator

To: laureldrive
Thanks for the update! Previous story on this City (Berkeley) and Scouts square off over gay rights (it's freepin time) from November (which was last I had heard anything on it).
3 posted on 02/28/2003 2:39:27 PM PST by chance33_98 (Freep On)
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To: laureldrive
 Formated for easy reading:
 
Scouts unbowed by Berkeley bullies
Thought-police bureaucrats punish group with fees that apply only to it

Pacific Legal Foundation Attorney and counsel for one of Sea Scouts challenging Berkeley's policy.

We think of the frontiers of freedom as being patrolled by the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines. But these days, the Boy Scouts of America and affiliated groups also stand guard. In courtrooms across the country, they're resisting a domestic strain of tyranny - the totalitarian impulse to police thought and enforce a government-sanctioned orthodoxy on social and cultural issues.

The Scouts are loathed by many self-styled progressives for transmitting a code of commitment, stressing God and country, that was supposed to be marginalized by now. But they're not giving in to bureaucratic bullies who try to force them to shed "outmoded" beliefs on matters of sex and social values. Lovers of liberty - even those who might disagree with Scouting's principles - should toast their tenacity for the First Amendment and the right not to be PC.

This controversy was supposed to have been settled by the U.S. Supreme Court three years ago. In Boy Scouts of America v. Dale, a five-justice majority said that as a private, belief-based organization, the Scouts are free to craft their own membership rules; in particular, government can't order them to admit homosexuals as leaders. It follows that they're also within their rights to require that members profess a belief in God.

But an alarming number of local and state officials refused to listen. In 2001, for instance, District of Columbia officials ordered the local Scouts to readmit two gays as adult leaders and pay $100,000 in damages. This decree was overturned by an appeals court, which noted that D.C. should take another look at Dale.

Most of the current government assaults on the Scouts take the form of indirect coercion. There's shunning, as in San Francisco, where local judges are now barred from participating in Scouting. There's stigmatizing, as Connecticut and Portland, Ore., have attempted by excluding the Scouts from the charities that public employees may support through payroll deduction.

There's also selective denial of public benefits. Berkeley leads the way by singling out the Sea Scouts for a fee to use the city's marina. After being permitted free use for 50 years, the Sea Scouts in 1998 were suddenly hit with a charge of more than $500 per month. No other nonprofit is required to pay to berth at the marina. The fee is imposed explicitly because of the Sea Scouts' affiliation with the Boy Scouts.

High school teacher Eugene Evans, skipper of the Berkeley Sea Scouts' ship, pays the fee out of his pocket, so he can no longer cover membership costs for teenagers from poorer neighborhoods. Some have had to drop out.

Unfortunately, a California court of appeal upheld Berkeley's punitive policy in November. The Sea Scouts have now asked the state Supreme Court to take the case. They cite the constitutional rule against "viewpoint discrimination" in the public sector. In other words, if Berkeley decides to offer free berthing to nonprofits - which it has done - it can't pick and choose recipients based on their beliefs or the beliefs of those they're associated with.

Several recent "graduates" of the Berkeley Sea Scouts are now Marines stationed in the Persian Gulf. One of these young leathernecks is a plaintiff in the lawsuit against Berkeley's anti-Scout policy. All are following in a long tradition of Sea Scouts stepping forward in the nation's hours of need. More than 100,000 Sea Scouts volunteered after Pearl Harbor. Admiral Chester Nimitz reportedly said that the Sea Scouts were crucial to the Navy's ability to regroup after that disaster. But if Berkeley officials feel any remorse at targeting such a worthy group, they haven't revealed it.

Today, the Boy Scouts' and Sea Scouts' fight is for the survival of a free and robust private sector, a sphere where all may choose their beliefs and affiliations without preclearance, editing or censorship by the state, and without fear of official discrimination or reprisal. For defending this basic principle of a free society, the Scouts deserve a hearty salute 


4 posted on 02/28/2003 2:43:54 PM PST by Rain-maker
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To: laureldrive
It is only permissable to force your beliefs on someone if the beliefs are liberal or secular in nature....
5 posted on 02/28/2003 2:44:50 PM PST by amused (Republicans for Sharpton!)
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To: Rain-maker
Why the Scouts are fighting back !
 

6 posted on 02/28/2003 2:47:19 PM PST by Rain-maker
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To: laureldrive
cour·age

NOUN:

The state or quality of mind or spirit that enables one to face danger, fear, or vicissitudes with self-possession, confidence, and resolution.

7 posted on 02/28/2003 2:49:32 PM PST by Liberal Bob
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To: Rain-maker
And their beliefs are right! Homosexuality is immoral and therefore inappropriate behavior for a scout leader. I am as likely to change my mind on that as I am to think Playboy would make good reading material for the scouts. It just is NEVER going to happen.
8 posted on 02/28/2003 3:00:23 PM PST by RAT Patrol
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To: *bsa_list
http://www.freerepublic.com/perl/bump-list
9 posted on 02/28/2003 3:04:52 PM PST by Libertarianize the GOP (Ideas have consequences)
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To: RAT Patrol
Part of being a boyscout, is being "morally straight". I don't see how being homosexual someone can be "morally straight".
10 posted on 02/28/2003 3:08:30 PM PST by Sonny M (If you want to get rid of more wellstones, just loosen the bolts, not that I did that or anything.)
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To: Sonny M
Part of being a boyscout, is being "morally straight". I don't see how being homosexual someone can be "morally straight".

Well exactly. Being homosexual is neither moral nor straight.

11 posted on 02/28/2003 3:15:45 PM PST by RAT Patrol
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To: laureldrive
Are the Sea Scouts being treated any different than any other private organization?
12 posted on 02/28/2003 6:51:19 PM PST by JoshGray
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To: JoshGray
Are the Sea Scouts being treated differently ... ?

Looks like the answer is yes, from this sentence in the article: "No other nonprofit is required to pay to berth at the marina. The fee is imposed explicitly because of the Sea Scouts' affiliation with the Boy Scouts."

13 posted on 02/28/2003 7:11:01 PM PST by laureldrive
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Comment #14 Removed by Moderator

To: laureldrive
Berkeley leads the way by singling out the Sea Scouts for a fee to use the city's marina. After being permitted free use for 50 years, the Sea Scouts in 1998 were suddenly hit with a charge of more than $500 per month. No other nonprofit is required to pay to berth at the marina.

AMENDMENT XIV: ... No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.

Seems pretty clear to me. Is anyone bringing suit yet?

15 posted on 02/28/2003 8:59:52 PM PST by John Jorsett
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To: madg
I think that they were forced into this position because of the undue influence of the Mormon Church on the BSA

You're saying there was a time when the Scouts allowed open homosexuals, or atheists, as leaders -- sometime before "the unde influence of the Mormon Church" started? I say you're full of it.

As for whether they should get public benefits - - if other private organizations are allowed public benefits, the scouts can't be discriminated against merely because they have beliefs you don't agree with. Right. let's have government start discriminating against every organization that doesn't buy into your PC worldview.

16 posted on 02/28/2003 9:50:54 PM PST by laureldrive
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To: madg
For a bunch of people who want to maintain a marginal lifestyle and not be "discriminated" against, gay activists sure do demand conformity from everyone else. It's a bunch of appalling hypocrisy. They should pick on someone their own size and leave these little boys alone.
17 posted on 02/28/2003 10:21:40 PM PST by RAT Patrol
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To: laureldrive
"Non-profit" and "private" are two different things.
18 posted on 03/01/2003 3:12:18 AM PST by JoshGray
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To: RAT Patrol; madg
They should pick on someone their own size and leave these little boys alone.

See, the queers want to be left alone with someone's boy.

19 posted on 03/01/2003 3:20:58 AM PST by csvset
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To: JoshGray
Non-proft and private are two different things

Yes, and so ? The article say NO OTHER non-profit is charged the fee. This implied the Sea Scouts are a nonprofit. And unlike other nonprofits, they're being charged a fee. So that answers your earlier question of whether they're being treated differently. They ARE being treated differently from other non-profits, because Berkeley doesn't like them. Your distinction between private and nonprofit is irrelevant. It just seems you're trying to invent an argument that could justify Berkeley's policy. Apparently you don't like the Sea Scouts either.

20 posted on 03/01/2003 9:01:16 AM PST by laureldrive
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