Posted on 05/30/2006 3:17:33 PM PDT by SmithL
WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court rejected an appeal Tuesday from an atheist father over Boy Scout recruiting at his son's public school.
John Scalise had asked the court to bar public schools from opening their doors to Boy Scout recruiters and promoting membership, arguing that the group discriminates against nonreligious boys and parents by denying them membership if they don't swear to religious oaths.
Scalise's dispute with the Scouts dates back to 1998, when his son was a third-grader in Mount Pleasant, Mich.
He claims he and his son were barred from a Scout program at the elementary school because they would not pledge "to do my duty to God and my country." They are nonreligious Humanists.
Michigan courts ruled that the school-Scout partnership did not advance religion in violation of constitutional dictates.
Attorneys for the Scouts and Mount Pleasant school system told justices that the appeal was frivolous.
A Michigan appeals court said that Mount Pleasant schools allowed other organizations to use class facilities, including a hospital group, an Indian tribe, a Baptist church, and a hockey association.
Scalise argued that his son, Benjamin, was taunted by classmates and humiliated by a Boy Scout recruiter in front of other students. Benjamin Scalise is now 17.
The Supreme Court's last Boy Scout case was in 2000. Justices ruled 5-4 at the time that the Boy Scouts can bar gays from serving as troop leaders. The ruling was written by Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist, who died last year.
Scalise's attorney, Timothy Taylor of Mount Pleasant, said taxpayer-funded schools are too cozy with the Boy Scouts.
"It's going on all over the country and has been for decades," he said.
Bush is dead wrong on the immigration issue and I strongly oppose his position on that issue, but I'll still take him any day of the week over any Democrat other than perhaps Zell Miller.
It's cases like these that make me pround of voting for President Bush twice. The Supreme Court confirmations enable me to put up with a lot of Bush's antics.
;o)
Jot me down too.
The abomination of legalized murder of unborn human beings is the Satanic evil that will eventually destroy this nation if it is not stopped by law. No issue that bears on the will of the American people is more important than the abortion holocaust.
Oh, yeah. Because it's not really about being included or excluded. You just want everyone else to be as miserable as you are.
Godless people. Sheesh.
Not sure what you mean by this, and I'm not sure how the vote went down on this case, but if it were up to the "Bushbots," Harriet Miers would be on the Supreme Court right now; no telling how she would have voted.
Thanks to the mal-content "BushBashers," Alito is on the court.
Amen!
My kids are all too old to be Scouts anymore, but I still hang around. I get to open a National Eagle Court of Honor this Sunday for a fine young man I've watched grow from just being a little kid all excited about going to Summer Camp. I love this stuff - that and all the beads, knots and patches.
"Thank the "Bushbots" for this one."
Like heck thank the Bushbots. It was the conservatives that made Bush back down from Harriet Miers and thus we got Sam Alito. Thank you conservatives for putting up a stink. How important that was is shown by this case being dumped by the Supremes. Alito was the swing vote on the whistleblower case. Alito is a product of us conservatives, not you Bushbots.
The Court can only take a small fraction of all the appeals that come its way. This is a hard physical limitation, unless we want to put all the Justices on meth.
It's a fancy way of saying 'assho**'.
L
I used to think it was a bit cheesy but I love it too.
Wow, your son has it grouped, too! Mine is focused on SOL testing this week and next and his Confirmation Examination and Confirmation this Sunday! Talk about overload!
I understand the thrust of your comment, but just so you know: the various religious awards are not BSA awards. They are administered by an organization called P.R.A.Y. However, a number of youth organizations (including the GSUSA and the BSA) have authorized their members to wear them on their uniforms if they earn them. They are not even supposed to be awarded at a BSA ceremony; they should be awarded at a ceremony at the church/synagogue/temple/mosque at which they were earned.
I believe that the figure for the current congress is that about 70% were Scouts at one point in their lives. Donald Rumsfield is an Eagle Scout.
I agree that the actual award should be awarded at the Religious Institution where it was earned. The Boy Scouts, unlike the other youth programs, presents a Square Knot to be worn on the uniform, and that is a very appropriate award at a Court of Honor.
As for the overload, it's really just learning good planning skills, I think. It sounds like your son has made that leap as well.
My son knows he will be busy in the fall with his Eagle project, and wants to hit Eagle with a good jumpstart on palms, so he is going to work hard this summer and get a slew of them done.
With some hard work he could have four palms done before Eagle, and then he has a year to complete the last two palms - after Eagle.
One thing we are learning is that the picking gets slim when you get past 4 palms. The remaining merit badges are all ones he is not as fond of taking on, or very time-consuming.
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