Federal support of the Boy Scouts of America

The Secular Coalition for America urges Congress to bar the use of federal funds to assist any organization that discriminates based on religion -- including the Boy Scouts of America. We further urge Congress to revoke the federal charter of the BSA.

In 1998, the California Supreme Court held against William and Michael Randall, who were expelled from the Boy Scouts of America (BSA) for not swearing a religious oath. The ruling on this case and others was based on the BSA's right to ignore anti-discrimination laws because of its status as a "private membership organization."

Anti-discrimination laws as well as the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment should prohibit federal support of the BSA. The courts have allowed the BSA (as a private membership organization) to discriminate, but the U.S. government must not be permitted to aid in such discriminatory behavior.

In early 2005, Congress passed a resolution expressing a sense of the Congress that the Department of Defense should support BSA activities through the use of military personnel, federal land use, and other assistance for their massive Jamborees. The 2005 Jamboree cost taxpayers approximately $8 million.

In July 2005, Judge Manning, a federal court judge in Illinois, issued an injunction against the Defense Department spending money to support future Jamborees. The Department of Defense appealed this ruling.

In January 2006, Congress included the "Support Our Scouts Act of 2005" in its defense authorization bill. This law requires the Department of Defense to provide at least the same level of support for the BSA's national and world Jamborees as in past years. This law also requires any state or local government entity that receives Community Development Block Grant money from the Department of Housing and Urban Development to allow BSA to have meetings in their facilities or on their property. This requirement would override any of these entities' own anti-discrimination laws or regulations forbidding access to a discriminatory group such as the BSA.

In April 2007, the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals dismissed the Illinois lawsuit. The court did not determine if the federal aid violated the Establishment Clause; instead the three-judge panel ruled the plaintiffs did not have legal standing in the case.

The Secular Coalition for America urges Congress to bar the use of federal funds to assist any organization that discriminates based on religion -- including the Boy Scouts of America.

The Secular Coalition for America further urges Congress to revoke the federal charter of the BSA. Our government must not entangle itself in religious organizations; nor should it establish, with government imprimatur, a private religious club.