The Washington Examiner reports today that the Supreme Court has declined to hear an appeal from the San Deigo area Boy Scouts of a ruling that says that the Boy Scouts cannot lease city-owned parkland in San Deigo. The Federal judges have said that the Boy Scouts are a religious group and the lease violates the federal law that prohibits the promotion of religion. The American Civil Liberties Union filed the suit on behalf of a lesbian couple and an agnostic couple, each with scouting-age sons. The suit was filed in 2006 right after the City Council voted to extend the 50-year lease for another 25 years.
The boy scouts' response is that they have no theology and only believe that children should "do duty to God" to become productive citizens.
So two couples with scouting aged sons can ruin the scouting experience of numerous other scouts because they don't like the morals the Boy Scouts are teaching. I think we need more groups teaching morals and community service, not less. I am really sorry this decision will not be overturned. If the two couples involved don't like what the Boy Scouts teach, they should start their own group to train good citizens--they don't have to attack someone else's group.
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