The San Diego Union Tribune on Jan. 9 reported:
The city of San Diego has agreed to cancel its lease in Balboa Park with the Boy Scouts, hoping to end the city's role in a 3? -year legal battle with the American Civil Liberties Union.
The Boy Scouts, however, vowed to continue fighting for its 18-acre headquarters even without city support, because it believes its constitutional liberties are at stake. Last month, the group received a letter of support from the U.S. Justice Department, stating the group's predicament raised "substantial concerns" that the group's rights were being violated.
The ACLU filed the lawsuit against the city and the Boy Scouts in August 2000, two months after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the Boy Scouts could refuse to admit gay troop members or troop leaders. The lawsuit said the city showed favoritism toward a religious organization by leasing the Scouts land for $1 a year.
The city's settlement was announced yesterday, though the City Council made the decision Dec. 9 in a closed session. As part of the deal, the city agreed to pay $790,000 of the ACLU's legal fees and $160,000 in court costs.
The city also agreed to drop its defense of a separate but similar lease of land at Fiesta Island. That matter is still pending in San Diego federal court but could go to trial this year.
In the Bizarro World of the judicial tyrants, a non-sectarian youth organization whose members believe in God magically becomes a "religious organization" and, even more magically, civic support of such an organization becomes a violation of the US Constitution's establishment clause. And for its efforts to fight the crime of open belief in God, the ACLU will be rewarded with nearly $1 million in legal fees to continue its assault on the Boy Scouts and other manifestations of traditional values - values which the Constitution's framers would have overwhelmingly supported.
You can contact the Justice Department here, and ask that it use all its powers to support the Scouts in these lawsuits. You can also express your disgust to the San Diego City Council here, and make a financial contribution to the Scouts here.
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