Quote:
Monday, Oct. 16, 2006 Print This | Email This
Supreme Court will not review California city's move against Boy Scouts group
By MARK SHERMAN Associated Press Writer
(AP) - WASHINGTON-A Boy Scouts sailing group that lost free use of a public boat slip because of the Scouts' discriminatory policies failed to persuade the Supreme Court to take its case.
The justices on Monday let stand a unanimous California Supreme Court ruling that the city of Berkeley may treat the Berkeley Sea Scouts differently from other nonprofits because the Scouts bar atheists and gays.
The leader of the Sea Scouts argued that forcing the group to pay for a berth at the marina violated the group's free speech and freedom of association rights in the U.S. constitution.
The U.S. high court ruled in 2000 that the Boy Scouts have the right to ban openly homosexual scout leaders, a decision that rested on the Scouts' constitutional rights.
Even so, the California Supreme Court said in March, local governments are under no obligation to extend benefits to organizations that discriminate.
Berkeley, home of free speech protests since the 1960s, adopted a nondiscrimination policy on the use of its marina in 1997 and revoked the Sea Scouts' subsidy a year later.
The Sea Scouts are a branch of the Boy Scouts that teaches sailing, carpentry and plumbing. City officials had told the group that it could retain its berthing subsidy if it broke ties with the Boy Scouts or disavowed the policy against gays and atheists, but the Sea Scouts refused.
2006-10-16T17:26:04Z
news.findlaw.com/ap/o/51/...bc77c.html
The generalizing and concentrating of all cares and powers into one body."
Thomas Jefferson

