|
Berth of a suit: Berkeley anti-bias action against Sea Scouts heads to court
Clashes between the Boy Scouts asserting a right to bar gays and municipalities enforcing nondiscrimination ordinances have cropped up in more and more courts around the country. The latest constitutional wrangle comes in two California cases. The state Supreme Court will hear arguments Tuesday in a dispute over Berkeley's decision to end a subsidy for use of a city marina by Sea Scouts, a Boy Scouts affiliate. The Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals will hear the second, a federal case brought by the American Civil Liberties Union last February over renewal of San Diego's 50-year lease of a city campground to the Boy Scouts. The two cases arise against the backdrop of the U.S. Supreme Court decision in 2000 allowing the scouts to refuse to hire a gay scout leader.Boy Scouts of America v. Dale, 530 U.S. 640 (2000). The court followed last year by letting stand a Connecticut anti-discrimination law that scratched Scouts from a list of charities that could solicit state employees for payroll deductions. … "This should be an easy decision for the court," said Lawrence Levine, a McGeorge School of Law professor who specializes in sexual orientation law. The U.S. Supreme Court has already decided that the Scouts are allowed to discriminate, but there are consequences to discriminating. "That is all the Berkeley case is about. It is extremely hard to imagine that the court would conclude Berkeley doesn't have the right to do what it's done," Levine said.
For a copy of the complete article, contact CJRG. |