Boy Scouts lose again!

[Otto]

The Supreme Court has refused to hear an appeal from Boy Scouts of America, Inc. seeking to overturn the actions of the State of Connecticut, which excluded BSA Inc. from a state workplace giving program because it would put the state in the position of “sanctioning discrimination.” BSA Inc., believing that its SCOTUS-recognized right to exclude gays should carry with it no ramifications, sued the state claiming not being included in the program because of anti-gay discrimination violated its First Amendment rights. BSA Inc. lost, I believe, at every turn, and now the case is dead with the denial of its petition by the Court.

One more example of BSA Inc. expecting that its actions won’t have consequences.

Unfortunately, BSA Inc.'s string of losses following its winning the right to discriminate hasn’t stopped it from trying to suckle at the public teat. Even as SCOTUS turned down this appeal, another is brewing over the settlement of a case in San Diego in which the city agreed to terminate a sweetheart lease agreement on public land with BSA Inc. Unfortunately the increasingly-misnamed Justice Department has sided with BSA Inc., filing an amicus brief in the case seeking to preserve the sweetheart deal. The point the JD is trying to make seems to be that because BSA Inc. is not a “church” not giving it governmental favoritism with sweetheart deals is unconstitutional. The JD also cites a number of organizations with similar sweetheart deals, including “Girl Scouts of America, the Boys and Girls Club of San Diego, and several Little League organizations,” claiming that their getting sweetheart leases means BSA Inc. has to be given one too. Except of course that GSA and Boys and Girls Clubs (don’t know about Little League) don’t claim to be “private religious organizations” and those two groups have written non-discrimination policies which include sexual orientation.

I’m glad that court after court is telling BSA Inc. that they don’t get to have it both ways.

[MrVisible]

Man, I hate this.

Those kids should be receiving the benefits of those sweetheart deals, learning how to pitch tents and build fires and read maps and whatever else it is that boy scouts do. The state, the feds, the cities and counties should be able to give them whatever they can afford, to make sure that kids have experience with the outdoors and with cooperating with other kids. It seems like the boy scouts have helped turn out some fine self-reliant people over their history, and it’s a damned shame that it’s come to this.

But it’s the consequences of their legal course of action. They wanted to be able to discriminate against gay people, and so they got recognized as a private religious organization. And this is what happens to private organizations that exclude groups out of prejudice.

I’m sure most of the people in the scouts don’t care about excluding gay people as much as they care about making sure that the kids they’re devoted to get the most out of their scouting experience. Is there any way for them to oust the current leadership, and undo the damage they’ve done? Is there any way to go back to the days when the Boy Scouts didn’t stand for prejudice?

[Doomtrain]

It’s a sad day when the Scouts are known more for discrimination than their usual stuff. But at the same time, hey, you wanna be discriminatory asshats, my tax dollars don’t need to pay for it.