It seems the ACLU is still filing lawsuits against the Boy Scouts of America. This latest case was actually the ACLU filing a case against the Department of Defense, trying to stop the BSA from having the National Jamboree at Fort AP Hill.
Here is an excerpt from the statement from the BSA:
"The United States Congress has found that the military's logisticalsupport for the National Scout Jamboree is an incomparable trainingopportunity for our armed forces. The Jamboree requires the construction,maintenance, and disassembly of a "tent city" capable of supporting tens ofthousands of people for a week or longer. Nevertheless, the ACLU sued the Department of Defense in 1999 over itssupport for the Jamboree. In 2005, a federal district court in Chicagoconcluded the Jamboree statute (10 U.S.C. section 2554) wasunconstitutional under the Establishment Clause because Scouting has anonsectarian "duty to God" requirement. DoD appealed the district court'sinjunction against military support under that statute for the 2010Jamboree. In today's ruling, the federal Court of Appeals in Chicago reversed thedistrict court's decision, concluding that the taxpayers named as theplaintiffs in the lawsuit did not have standing to sue DoD in the firstplace."
I would like to thank Fred Goodwin for posting this link in a Scout forum that I belong to. I think it is time to stop the ACLU from filing such frivolous lawsuits and wasting taxpayer’s money. I do not understand why the ACLU has such a problem with the BSA, an organization that has been great for this country for ninety years.
Note that the finding was not that the content of the decison was wrong, but the plaintiffs did not have standing.
I am a long time Scouter and ACLU member. I do not want our government spending money to promote or support organizations that have exclusive religious membership requirements such as Scouting.
If we are allowed such privileges why not the (fill in the blank) Church? Why not the KKK? On what basis can the government deny these organizations support if we receive it ourselves?
Our constitution does not favor one religious point of view over the other. So long as the BSA demands a religious commitment from its membership it should not receive government subsidy; nor should we ask for it.
Every Troop, Pack, Team, Crew and council raises its own money. Why can’t we have a slightly less spectacular and smaller Jamboree on our own dime?