THE BOY SCOUTS CASE: DISCRIMINATION AGAINST GAY SCOUTS AND NON-BELIEVERS

Barnes-Wallace v. City of San Diego

December 2006


The sons of an agnostic family and a gay family were explictly excluded from membership in the Boy Scouts of America. San Diego was leasing public property to the Boy Scouts for $1/year, which a federal judge said "provided not even the pretense of neutrality" toward religion, thus violating both state and federal constitutions. The ACLU filed suit in 2000 and argued an appeal before the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in 2006, which certified questions to the California Supreme Court in December 2006.

The Boy Scouts filed a petition for rehearing en banc. Plaintiffs have filed their response to the petition and are awaiting the court’s ruling.