By By Allie Martin
November 13, 2002

(AgapePress) - A California affiliate of the Boy Scouts of America is taking legal action against the City of Berkeley because of that city’s refusal to let the organization use city-owned ship berths in the marina.

For more than 60 years, the Berkeley Sea Scouts were allowed to have free use of some city-owned ship berths in the Berkeley Marina. But that stopped several years ago because of the local group's refusal to recant any association with the national Boy Scouts and its policy of prohibiting open homosexuals from membership and leadership positions. An initial lawsuit against the city was unsuccessful, but has now been appealed.

Brad Dacus of the Pacific Justice Institute says the Scouts have a right to use city property and observe their own regulations.

Brad Dacus

"The Constitution in no way requires the City of Berkeley to have this privilege to openly discriminate against the Boy Scouts or any institution because of their moral and deep convictions about homosexuality -- or any other sexual orientation, for that matter," he says.

"While cities like Berkeley are free to enact bizarre ordinances prohibiting discrimination on the basis of sexual desire and behavior, using such laws as a means to dictate who a private organization associates with is absolutely unconstitutional."

Legal action is now the only option, Dacus says. "The City of Berkeley, in their intolerance, is attempting to punish an organization that has been serving the community simply and solely because of the values and beliefs and traditions of that institution."

A lower court has turned down an appeal by the Sea Scouts, and an appeal has been made to the California Court of Appeals in San Francisco. Dacus says the case could wind up before the U.S. Supreme Court.

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