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<DIV><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff><A
href="http://tinyurl.com/27dnok7">http://tinyurl.com/27dnok7</A></FONT></DIV>
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<H1 class=headline>Court won't hear appeal on Boy Scouts land rental</H1>
<P class=byline>By The Associated Press</P>
<P class=date>Monday, May 3, 2010 at 7:30 a.m.</P>
<DIV class="storyleadphoto inline"><A
href="http://www.signonsandiego.com/photos/2010/may/03/157177/"
target=_blank><IMG
alt="This 2004 aerial shows 18-acre Camp Balboa in Balboa Park which the Boy Scouts leased from the city of San Diego for $1 per year. The Scouts also had free use of an aquatic facility on city-owned Fiesta Island in Mission Bay."
src="http://media.signonsandiego.com/img/photos/2010/05/03/balboa-park-scouts_t352.jpg?980751187beea6fc26a3a9e93795d379f58af1c4"></A>
<DIV class=photocaption>
<P class=photocredit>John Gibbins / 2004 U-T file photo</P>
<P class=meight><FONT size=2>This 2004 aerial shows 18-acre Camp Balboa in
Balboa Park which the Boy Scouts leased from the city of San Diego for $1 per
year. The Scouts also had free use of an aquatic facility on city-owned Fiesta
Island in Mission Bay.</FONT></P></DIV></DIV>
<P><SPAN class=dateline>WASHINGTON</SPAN> — <FONT size=5>The Supreme Court on
Monday decided to let stand a ruling saying the Boy Scouts cannot lease
city-owned parkland in San Diego because the group is a religious
organization.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT size=5>The high court refused to hear an appeal from San Diego-area Boy
Scouts who have traditionally leased Balboa Park camp space.</FONT></P>
<P>U.S. District Judge Napoleon Jones Jr. ruled in 2003 that San Diego acted
improperly when it leased 18 acres of camp space to the Scouts because the group
is a religious organization. The judge said the lease violated federal law that
prohibits the government promotion of religion.</P>
<P>The Boy Scouts say they have no theology and only hold the position that
children should "do duty to God" to become productive citizens.</P>
<P>The American Civil Liberties Union had sued San Diego and the Boy Scouts in
August 2000 on behalf of a lesbian couple and an agnostic couple, each with
scouting-age sons. They filed the lawsuit after the City Council voted to extend
the group's 50-year lease for another 25 years.</P>
<P>The Boys Scouts have been the target of preferential treatment lawsuits since
the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in June 2000 that the group has a constitutional
right to exclude openly gay men from serving as troop leaders and because it
compels members to swear an oath of duty to God.</P>
<P>The group had received support from the Bush administration, which in March
2004 filed a friend of the court brief arguing that even though the organization
believes in God and members take an oath to do their duty to God, it is not a
religious organization.</P>
<P>The case is Boy Scouts v. Barnes-Wallace, 08-1222.</P></DIV>
<P class=post_story_blurb>The Associated Press</P></DIV></BODY>
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