Boy Scouts Petition U.S. Supreme Court for Appeal
For over a half a century, the Boy Scouts have partnered with the City of San Diego and leased a 16-acre parcel at Balboa Park. In exchange for paying a nominal fee to the city, the Scouts were allowed to lease the park and make numerous improvements to the property,
including a public campground.
Hundreds of other groups have similar arrangements with the city.
These relationships constitute what urban developers and economists call public-private partnerships.
A growing number of countries are experimenting with and implementing public-private partnerships. These partnerships can take on a variety of forms; a construction contractor may take temporary ownership of a school building project, or a private transit company may operate a metropolitan subway system, a nonprofit agency might take over the management of a public golf course or zoo. In projects like these, the private ability for efficiency and quality has shown to outpace whatever government could do.
In 1987, San Diego leased an additional half-acre parcel to the Scouts at Mission Bay Park.
Again, the Scouts spent millions of dollars to build an aquatic center, which is open to the entire community. The ACLU filed suit against the city and the Boy Scouts, on behalf of a lesbian couple and an agnostic couple who alleged that leasing public land to a private group that requires members to adhere to religious faith, is a violation of the Establishment Clause of the U.S. Constitution.
The couples are additionally offended that the Boy Scouts requires its leaders to maintain sexual ethics consistent with the organization’s beliefs.
In June 2003, U.S. District Judge Napoleon Jones ruled in the case of Barnes-Wallace v. Boy Scouts of America that the Scouts are a “religious organization” and that their lease agreement with the city of San Diego thus violates the establishment clause of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. The Scouts are now asking the Supreme Court to take the case.
On June 11, 2008, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit ruled that the ACLU could challenge the leases,
even though its clients had never even been to the parks, been exposed to any religious symbols at the parks, or been denied any services by the Boy Scouts. The court found they had standing to proceed with their lawsuit because they were offended at the idea of having to contact Boy Scout representatives to gain access to the facilities. (View 9th Circuit’s Order) The Scouts are now asking the Supreme Court to take the case.
Boy Scouts of America have filed a petition for a writ of certiorari with the Supreme Court of the United States asking the Court to review the 9th Circuit’s recent decisions about Scouting leases in San Diego.
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