Boy Scouts Refused Hearing by Supreme Court

WASHINGTON – The Supreme Court has let stand a ruling saying the Boy Scouts cannot lease city park land in San Diego because the group is a religious organization. The high court refused to hear an appeal from San Diego-area Boy Scouts.

The Boy Scouts maintain that they have no theology and only hold the position that children have a “duty to God” to become productive citizens.

The American Civil Liberties Union had sued San Diego and the Boy Scouts on behalf of a lesbian couple and an agnostic couple, each with Scouting-age sons.

The Boy Scouts have been the target of lawsuits since the Supreme Court ruled in 2000 that the group can exclude homosexuals from serving as troop leaders and because Scouts must swear an oath of duty to God.