ACLU sues Boy Scouts over funding

Daily Bulletin, Ontario Calif. ^ | 1/30/03 | Jannise Johnson

[RonF]

A .pdf of the actual complaint filed in court is found here.

[wizzler]

Think about much time, energy and pdf documents could be saved if the federal government would just quit giving money to ANYBODY, Boy Scouts or otherwise.

It's not the government's money to give (or to have taken) in the first place.

[Democrap]

Those guys gays will do anything to spend a night in the woods with these young boys won't they?

[LiteKeeper]

That's my old council...ACLU get your hands off!!!!

[skinkinthegrass]

I suggest an counter-suit for harassment, tell the buggers,where to GO :)

[Democrap]

I'm not an attorney so I don?t know if it can be done but it sounds good to me. In my opinion the ACLU has been running amuck without any consequences for their action for years now.

[montag813]

The $15,000 grant allowed the "Scoutreach" program to do more outreach to disadvantaged children in Montclair, south Montclair and south Chino.

And of course helping poor kids is EVIL. If the scouts were instead teaching them FISTING, now that would be ok.

[Libertarianize the GOP]

http://www.freerepublic.com/perl/bump-list

[Digger]

It's not the government's money to give (or to have taken) in the first place.

Please tell that to Mr Bush. This so-called conservative has seen a way to spend YOUR money faster than back to the days of LBJ. Did you see one program that was mentioned in his SOTU speech to CUT spending? But YOUR money WILL be used to spend on AIDS in Africa. BTW many in the know say that this money WILL increase the spread of this disease.

[TRY ONE]

What about the Girl Skouts?

How can they accept federal funds & sign an agreement stating they will comply with federal and state anti-discrimination laws.....AND THEN DISCRIMINATE BY NOT ALLOWING BOYS INTO THE PROGRAM?????

hehehehehehe...........

[wizzler]

Believe me, I'd love to tell Mr. Bush. I try to tell as many politicians as I can, by voting for libertarians and other candidates who aren't actually lying when they use the phrase "small government."

Unfortunately, too many of my neighbors like picking my pocket while they have their own pockets picked.

[RonF]

Actually, the Girl Scouts discriminate more than the BSA does. The GSUSA has no program at all for boys (in fact, their international umbrella organization, WAGGGS, forbids the creation of such programs by their members), and forbids men from being the "principal leader" in their units. Whereas the BSA has a traditional program for young women from the ages of 14 to 21 (Venturing), a non-traditional program for people of all sexual preferences from the ages of 6 though 18 (Learning for Life), and allows women to occupy any leadership position they have. Since it seems that there are far more women than homosexuals and atheists, I'd say that the BSA excludes fewer people than the GSUSA does.

[69ConvertibleFirebird]

Oh, man... Thanks for the reminder!

Note to self: Send big, fat, check to the Boy Scouts of America.

[RonF]

Look in the yellow pages or go to the Council Locator page on www.scouting.org. Your local Council is listed there. To give online, go to www.give2bsa.org.

[mlmr]

You mean there aren't any bored Freeper lawyers or law students who would have fun with this class action suit against the Girl Scouts?????

[Bonaparte]

If the ACLU wants to sue the BSA for accepting federal funds while excluding those who openly adhere to the homosexual creed, then there are innumerable leftist organizations that can be sued on the same basis -- they accept federal funding while excluding from their ranks those who openly adhere to the conservative creed. Why don't we start with PBS? Then we can move on to Harvard and all the other ivy league and public universities.

[Bonaparte]

Be cautious about local councils. Some of them, especially in liberal areas like San Francisco, depart from BSA national policy. I send my contributions directly to the national organization and let them decide how to allocate it.

[MikeJ75]

I suggest an counter-suit for harassment, tell the buggers,where to GO :)

The Federal Civil False Claims Act, under which the ACLU is suing, specifically allows the defendant (Boy Scouts) to recover certain damages if the suit was "clearly frivolous, clearly vexatious, or brought primarily for purposes of harassment."

I read the brief (thanks to RonF for kindly posting the link). It looks like the Boy Scouts are out of luck on this one. In return for receiving funds under a federal block grant, the Boy Scouts signed an agreement promising not to discriminate under federal (religion) or state (religion and sexual orientation) laws. The Boy Scouts has a religious requirement and disallows homosexual members and adult leaders. As much as the Boy Scouts would like to win this one, they should cut their losses, return the $15,000 and thereby minimize the additional damages they will have to pay to the ACLU under the Federal Civil False Claims Act, which awards a percentage of the award and attorney fees to persons successfully suing to recover on behalf of the government.

Congress should look into the authority that it gives local governments in administering federal block grants. With Republicans in control of Congress, it may be possible to modify the law so that recipients are allowed to discriminate on the basis of religion and sexual orientation.

[OneLoyalAmerican]

Fight ACLU Fascism. Support Scouting.

[Kuksool]

The ACLU is the most dangerous terrorist group in America.