Posted on 08/09/2004 3:42:06 AM PDT by JohnHuang2
Boy Scouts: Legal bigots?
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By Hans Zeiger
© 2004 WorldNetDaily.com
One must truly be vile to be legally classified as a bigot. Bigot is the label that may soon be branded by the American Bar Association upon individuals who volunteer with the Boy Scouts of America. And under a newly proposed ABA conduct rule, America's judges would be prohibited from associating with the Boy Scouts.
When the 400,000-member American Bar Association passes judicial ethics rules, state and federal courts generally adopt and abide by those rules. The latest rule proposal would force judges to end any current involvement they have with organizations that exclude homosexuals, just as judges are not allowed to be a part of the Ku Klux Klan, neo-Nazi groups or other racist organizations. An ethics panel is discussing the new rule and it could be approved next year.
The leader of the ABA legal ethics panel is attorney Mark Harrison of Phoenix who explained that the goal of the anti-Boy Scouts proposal is to "make sure that judges aren't viewed as bigots."
Seeing that Mr. Harrison is a member of the board of trustees for Planned Parenthood, it is reasonable to ask whether the ABA should also ban advocates of abortion and murder from the nation's courts. Surely members of Planned Parenthood are bigots too, against the unborn.
The ABA proposal follows on a California Supreme Court decision last year that judges who volunteer with the Scouts must either disclose their involvement with Scouting or exempt themselves from any case that involves homosexual discrimination. Reacting to motions by the San Francisco, San Jose and Los Angeles Bar Associations, the California high court essentially said: "If a judge happens to be a scoutmaster in the local Boy Scout troop, he is a fundamentalist, intolerant, homophobic bigot and should make that known to the community or be ineligible to decide in cases involving alternative lifestyles."
Making one's association with Scouting known to the public should not be reason for political and cultural stigma, it should be just another reason to re-elect a judge or commend him for his involvement in the community.
But the new American Bar Association ethics proposal goes beyond simply stigmatizing judges involved with the Scouts – the proposal would actually prohibit judges from any kind of association whatsoever with organizations that oppose homosexuality.
A so-called ethics expert who ended up in the ABA discussion is Stephen Gillers of New York University. Homosexuals, said Gillers, "should not be asked to trust the fairness of a judge" who holds membership in a discriminatory organization.
Of course, the Boy Scouts are not the only organization that prohibits homosexual members – many veteran groups, for example, also exclude homosexuals. Certainly, most churches and all Bible-believing churches are strictly opposed to homosexuality. Under the proposed ABA rules, judges could potentially be put in a position of having to choose between the bench and the Bible.
In fact, a judge who serves part time in the military Reserves or National Guard could be disqualified from his judgeship under the proposed rule, simply because open homosexuals are not allowed to serve in the Armed Forces.
Under the proposed rule, would the sons of judges also be prohibited from joining the Boy Scouts since the judge himself would still pay dues and drive his sons to and from meetings, at the least? How far would this rule go?
Judge Frederic Smallkin, a professor of law at the University of Maryland told the Associated Press of his disagreements with the proposed ethics rule. "Judges are human beings too," said Smallkin. "They should be allowed to exercise their First Amendment rights of free association."
Isn't it interesting that for all the talk of the First Amendment by the leftist establishment in the legal community, there is such disregard for the First Amendment when it comes to protecting the rights of the Boy Scouts and those involved with the Scouts? For years, the American Civil Liberties Union has led the war on the Boy Scouts of America in our nation's courts. Now, the American Bar Association is discussing changing the very ground-rules on which business is conducted in the courtroom, in order to further denigrate America's finest youth organization and its members.
This is a battle we cannot afford to ignore. The honor and character of our nation is at stake. Let's e-mail the American Bar Association and tell them that their politically correct ethics rule proposal is unjust and dangerous.
Here is the letter I just sent to them. If I receive a reply, I will post it on this thread.
Ladies & Gentlemen,
I have two reasons for writing to you about the proposed ethical rule to force judges to cease their association with the Boy Scouts of America.
One is that I have briefed 18 cases in the US Supreme Court over the course of four decades, most of them concerning the First Amendment. I am aware, and every official of the ABA should be aware, of Dale v. BSA, in which the the Supreme Court ruled that the BSA prohibition of homosexual adult leaders was part of its First Amendment right of association. Some of my First Amendment litigation was written up in the ABA Journal in August, 1977.
The other is my own career in the BSA, including Eagle Scout and assorted other awards and leadership positions. I freely admit that my entire adult career was influenced by the training in the Scouts. I honor the service of adult leaders like Dr. Carl Zapffe who was Scoutmaster of Troop 35 in Baltimore, Md, for 41 years. (That gentleman was one of the nation's most able Scoutmasters; he graduated more than 240 Eagle Scouts.) And I add that there were sitting judges on the Troop Committee of Troop 35. My interest in the law as a career was encouraged by those fine gentlemen.
So, any rule that judges must disassociate from the BSA is a violation of the First Amendment rights of both the organization and the individuals who associate with it. The proposed rule would also do serious damage to the communities in which those judges serve on both the state and federal benches. There is no excuse for the ABA's proposed rule. In fact, the rule itself is a form of bigotry directed at all who share the value system of the Scouts, as do most of the members of many religions in the United States.
As a former member of the ABA (twenty years, until I decided that the uses the ABA made of my dues money did not suit my beliefs), I urge the ABA to reject this proposal.
And as a responsible lawyer and member of my community, I expect a response to this letter.
Sincerely,
John /s/
John Armor, Esq.
"KettleRock" Box 243
Highlands, NC 28741
Congressman Billybob
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Past three years as the District Chair and now the Camping/Outdoor chair and working on my WB ticket, son is an Eagle w/3 palms & Hornaday Bronze, youngest daughter is Gold Star (learned outdoors skills from her brother and used the 1948 BSA Field Book as her reference). Toss in 20+ years in the Army and you know where I stand.
Hope this goes nowhere. I'd have commented sooner, but I've been out of town.
Specifically, I've been in Japan as a leader for a BSA contingent of 41 people (35 Scouts and 6 leaders) from July 29th to yesterday. We flew to Toyko and stayed in the National Olympic Youth Center and toured Toyko by bus. Then we all stayed with Japanese Scouters and their families for two nights for a host stay to get to understand Japanese home and family life. After that, we attended the 6th Nippon Venture Jamboree with a group of Japanese scouts and did a bunch of high-adventure activities, as well as cooked and ate with them and had some fun after dinner activities.
Then we went to the Asia-Pacific Youth Forum with about 50 Japanese Scouts and Scouters and about 60 Scouts and Scouters from around 20 different countries around Asia and the Pacific Rim - New Zealand, Austrialia, French Polynesia, Bhutan, Nepal, Republic of China, Indonesia, Malaysia, Mongolia, Singapore, etc. There were a number of panel discussions and workshops on the problems that the different Scouts see in their countries, and how they all feel that they as Scouts can help address them, as well as how to increase membership in Scouting.
We had 25 young men and 12 young women (ages 15 - 18) from 11 states. They all had fun and they all did a fine job of representing the BSA and the US while getting to know the other Scouts present. It was a very intense experience and the trip of a lifetime for all of us. I'll be posting more later when I get caught up.
bttt
The left was so upset at the thought of Bush having a litmus test for abortion, but they want to bar every judge who has even the slightest connection to any group that holds a particular view? Wow, talk about intollerence from the party that preaches tollerence.
Sounds like you had a great time. GO SCOUTS!!!!
Just came down off Mt. Lemon in Tucson from Camp Lawton after completing second part of 6 days "resident" part of the work to start my Wood Badge Ticket (OWL patrol).
Our patrol project was on --- World Scouting and how Scouting is restarting even in Iraq and Afghanistan with help from adult scout leader from the coalition forces.
Yours in Scouting SandRat.
I've seen a bit more World Scouting than most lately. If there's anything I can do to help you with your ticket, let me know.
"I used to be an Eagle, ..." C-19-96
"I used to be a Staffer, ..." C-31-02
Does anyone else see the irony of a group excluding those with different ideas, on the basis that it's wrong to exclude those with different ideas?
It will take a lot more than a "name" to get me to get a lobotomy.
Other bigoted organizations that restrict membership / leadership by race, sex and beliefs:
NAACP
NOW
GLAAD
MALDEF
NARAL
Let's add these to the same list as the Boy Scouts and see how the ABA feels about this proposal now.
Thanks fellow Scout.
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