The New York Times
December 21, 2002
California May Bar Judges from Joining the Boy Scouts
By ADAM LIPTAK

The California Supreme Court is considering a proposal that would forbid the 1,600 judges in the state to belong to the Boy Scouts because of its refusal to accept gays.

California judges are prohibited from joining groups that discriminate based on sexual orientation, but nonprofit youth organizations are exempt. The Supreme Court took up the proposal to consider changing the rule at the request of bar associations in San Francisco and Los Angeles.

A spokesman for the Boy Scouts of America reacted with outrage to the proposal, which was announced on Thursday.

"It would be wrong, inappropriate and unconstitutional," the spokesman, Gregg Shields, said. "The proposed policy would be just as inappropriate as a policy forbidding judges from being Roman Catholic or Baptist or Orthodox Jewish or any of numerous faiths which share the Boy Scouts' views."

A handful of other states expressly prohibit judges from membership in organizations that discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation. But the question of applying those rules to the Boy Scouts does not seem to have arisen in those states.

The California proposal would change rules in the state's Code of Judicial Ethics. The exemption of "nonprofit youth organizations" was tailored to the Scouts, Chief Justice Ronald M. George said in an interview.

"The Boy Scouts do a lot of terrific work," said Angela M. Bradstreet, a former president of the San Francisco bar association who is the leading proponent of the proposal. "But it is inappropriate for any judge to be a member of any organization that practices invidious discrimination."

Chief Justice George said the topic aroused strong feelings among judges.

"There are many individuals in the judiciary who have been active in the Boy Scouts and who feel their First Amendment rights of association should allow them to maintain their loyalty to the scouts," he said.

Other judges, he added, believe that the Scouts practice unacceptable discrimination.

"Rather than dismiss it out of hand," the chief justice said about the proposal, "we decided we would engage in some study."

In 2000, after the United States Supreme Court decided that the Boy Scouts could decline to accept gay members, an appeals court judge in California, James R. Lambden, resigned from the organization. Staying in scouting, Judge Lambden wrote, was "ethically questionable for judges everywhere."

Last July, Superior Court judges in San Francisco announced that they would cut all ties to the Scouts, exempting local branches that disavowed the national policy on gay members.

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Unbelievable!

Be a cold day in Hades I support queers.  The Boy Scouts should be commended for being more attuned to what is right than the Catholic Church.

I love BSA.
But ONCE we had two MUSLIM black boys in the troop.

It was tradition for US to eat BACON on evert campout. I did research and got the rules for PORK for muslims. They cant eat from utensils used to cook pork. So imagine my surprise when BACON was BANNED from the campouts cause the SMELL or SIGHT of us cooking or eating it would be offensive to 2 boys out of 12. I was pissed. I even tried to share my research with the leaders, but what do I know, i was just a kid, i HAD TO BE WRONG. I say IT WAS WRONG to ban bacon, they dont have to eat it if they dont want to. Thats like saying that we all had to pray to ALLAH when they did to avoid offending them. BS. But i still like the scouts.

I remember when we were able to cook bacon.  And shoot .22s.  Yeah, the BSA.

Now, the tree huggers are trying to get their paws on them too.

pisses me off.

Most of the judges in CA are Liberal, especially at the top, the CA Supremes and the local Federals in the 9thCC

Keep 'em away from our Scouts!!!!!

I like what Ann Coulter said, "let's call liberalism what it is ....a church...and start kicking them out of government."

This makes me sick!

San Fran and LA need to be nuked! Bush said he wants new smaller tactical nukes, so why not get in some practice and make sure they work?


CRC

Why does this not surprise me? I wish I could go back to the days when I would be shocked by something like this.[:(]

Good! The last thing the Boy Scouts need are activist judges in their midst.

Boo-fucking-hoo! That's the best thing that could happen to the Boy Scouts. It makes it easier on them anyway, since they won't have to ban them in the future, since most California judges don't seem to meet the trustworth requirements.

Just this week the United Way chapter somewhere pulled support of 50,000$ because of Scout policy. Pissed off a fellow that had donaated 100,000 to UW, he started a program of donations and at that time they already had 80,000 coming from everywhere. Said he might reach out to other troops that had been droped by UW.