Welcome to BSALegal.org!
 This website was created on behalf of the Boy Scouts of America to inform the public about the legal issues that confront Scouting. Scouting has been under relentless legal assault and publicity barrage since the Supreme Court of the United States affirmed the Scouts' First Amendment right to freedom of association in 2000. Scouting will defend itself and the constitutional rights we all share as Americans. Most importantly, Boy Scouts of America will not allow the attacks to sway it from its mission: to prepare young people to make ethical and moral choices over their lifetimes by instilling in them the values of the Scout Oath and Law. Please visit this site often as it will be updated frequently. You are invited to register to be kept current on its contents. You will be notified by email when new information and features are added and when there are developments in the issues. On behalf of the more than three hundred Boy Scout Councils throughout America, welcome. Thank you for taking the time to read, listen, watch and learn. |
|  | Tuesday, January 22, 2008
Washington Post features Eagles' achievement Nice to have a national newspaper like the Washington Post recognize the transformative power of Scouting. Read here.
Thursday, January 10, 2008
Scouts ask California Supreme Court to protect Good Samaritans from lawsuits Boy Scouts of America submitted a friend of the court brief to the California Supreme Court in a case about the interpretation of that state’s “Good Samaritan” statute. Van Horn v. Watson, No. S152360. The Good Samaritan statute, Cal. Health & Safety Code § 1799.102, protects from liability those who provide emergency care in good faith at the scene of an emergency. An intermediate appellate court interpreted the statute as applying only to “medical” care in a “medical” emergency and concluded that the statute did not protect a rescuer who pulled someone from a car after a collision because she feared the car would catch fire or blow up. Boy Scouts of America teaches youth and their leaders to “be prepared,” to “do a good turn daily,” and “to help other people at all times.” Because of their values and training, Scouts do not hesitate to help fellow citizens in need. From 2004 through 2006, Boy Scouts of America awarded medals to over 80 Cub Scouts and Boy Scouts in California for saving lives, and thousands of Boy Scouts have earned merits badges for Emergency Preparedness and Lifesaving. Boy Scouts of America is concerned, however, that the lower court’s construction of California law will discourage citizens from helping one another, especially in emergencies, and subject well-intentioned rescuers to liability. Scouts who help others in time of emergency deserve the gratitude and encouragement of the State and not exposure to law suits. Here is story about the case from USA Today and an op-ed from the Sierra Sun.
Thursday, December 27, 2007
Philly Boy Scouts help family who lost home in fire Fox 29 in Philadelphia reports on how Boy Scouts from the Cradle of Liberty Council helped a Philadelphia area family who lost their home in a fire. Interesting contrast: the family was displaced by a fire and the Scouts are being evicted from their headquarters by the city.
Wednesday, December 19, 2007
Op-ed: "The War on the Boy Scouts"Denver Post Columnist Al Knight writes today:Some topics are best left both out of sight and out of mind. The American Civil Liberties Union's war on the Boy Scouts is not one of them. The ACLU, in a rational world, might well have been expected to champion the First Amendment rights of an organization like the Boy Scouts. After all, the First Amendment to the Constitution (so dear to the ACLU) protects both speech and the right to associate. The U.S. Supreme Court in 2000 upheld the right of the Boy Scouts to select members and leaders without regard to state laws that bar discrimination based on sexual orientation. That ruling hasn't stopped the ACLU. It has simply shifted tactics away from the courts and focused its energies on local and often mean-spirited campaigns to deny the Scouts places to meet and the ability to raise funds.
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Friday, December 07, 2007
Opinion: Philly Wrong about Scouts From today's Philadelphia Daily News, Christine M. Flowers writes that the city is wrong on the Scouts:CHILDREN are dying in the streets. Cops are targets. The murder toll is one a day. But City Hall thinks Public Enemy No. 1 is the Boy Scouts of America. City Solicitor Rom- ulo Diaz, backed by a weak-spined City Council, has pursued the Scouts with something akin to vengeance, cloaked in the language of equality. But the truth is different.
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