For Boy Scouts, speech is no longer free in BerkeleyThe Supreme Court of the United States today denied the Berkeley Sea Scouts' petition to hear an appeal of a California Supreme Court decision. The official Boy Scout statement is below:
Irving, TX / October 16, 2006 — Boy Scouts of America is disappointed that the United States Supreme Court has declined to hear an appeal of a California Supreme Court decision affecting Sea Scouts in the City of Berkeley.
In 1998, the City of Berkeley sought to punish the Sea Scouts by revoking their free use of berth space unless Boy Scouts of America changed its constitutionally-protected membership policies. In March of this year, the California Supreme Court rejected the Sea Scouts’ First Amendment challenge to the City’s exclusion, concluding that the Sea Scouts, unlike others, may exercise their constitutional rights only by paying the full price of berthing in the marina.
Boy Scouts of America was not a party to the case but filed a friend of the court brief supporting the Sea Scouts. George A. Davidson, attorney for Boy Scouts of America, stated that “The issue of governments seeking to punish organizations for exercising their First Amendment rights is a recurring one. There will be other opportunities for the Supreme Court to affirm First Amendment protections for organizations dealing with government agencies. Boy Scouts will continue to be active in bringing to the attention of the Court opportunities to provide needed guidance to lower courts on this important issue.”
Here is our post on the California Supreme Court's original decision in March and our post on the petition to the Supreme Court of the United States in July.
The Pacific Legal Foundation has released a statement from attorney Harold Johnson about the Supreme Court's action. In it Mr. Johnson says:
"The real victims here are the kids," said Johnson. "Berkeley is charging the Sea Scouts more than $500 per month to use its Marina, while other nonprofits don’t have to pay. This discrimination against the Sea Scouts has put the organization in a financial bind, and a number of underprivileged kids have had to drop out. Berkeley’s punishment of innocent kids in order to make an ideological statement is unfeeling, unfair – and unconstitutional."
Here is the complete statement by the Pacific Legal Foundation. The PLF represented Evans, the skipper of the Berkeley Sea Scouts in the case against the City of Berkeley.
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