U.S. defends funds to Scouts

U.S. defends funds to Scouts

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chicago/chi-0604070285apr07,1,5146237.story

http://tinyurl.com/fc8re

Appeals court told believers not favored

By Michael Higgins

Tribune staff reporter

Published April 7, 2006

The federal government's decision to spend about $7 million on a special Boy Scouts event does not improperly favor religious believers, despite the Scouts' policy that members affirm a duty to God, a government lawyer told a federal appeals court in Chicago on Thursday.

The U.S. Department of Defense has historically supported the National Scout Jamboree, a 10-day event held every four years, but not because of the Scouts' religious stance, said attorney Lowell Sturgill Jr.

"Any group can approach the military ... and request similar aid to what the Boy Scouts are getting," Sturgill told a three-judge panel of the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. "The plaintiffs haven't shown, on the record, that anybody has ever requested it and been denied."

Sturgill squared off Thursday against American Civil Liberties Union lawyers, who argued that the spending policy favors believers over non-believers and is unconstitutional.

In July, U.S. District Judge Blanche Manning agreed with the ACLU, and issued a court order that blocks the Defense Department from participating in the jamboree.

Manning concluded that the Pentagon's participation violated the 1st Amendment because the Boy Scouts of America "excludes atheists and agnostics" and calls for members to believe in God.

"No one except for the Boy Scouts can get this extraordinary aid," Adam Schwartz, attorney for the ACLU, argued Thursday. "The government has declared a winner without holding a race."

Schwartz compared the Boy Scouts funding to, for example, a government decision to declare that all federal drug-rehabilitation funds must go to religion-based, 12-step programs.

Rev. Eugene Winkler, a former pastor at the First United Methodist Church in Chicago, and others brought the lawsuit in 1999.

Winkler said after the hearing Thursday that, though he is a former Scout and scoutmaster, he believes the government's spending on the event discriminates against non-believers.

"Only kids who believe in God have this opportunity," Winkler said. "Kids who don't believe in God are excluded."

Judges quizzed Schwartz about an earlier court ruling that allowed the government to pay for chain-link fencing, drinking fountains and other support for a mass by the Pope John Paul II in 1979 on the mall in Washington. They also asked about government aid to the Special Olympics and the Girl Scouts.

Schwartz said no other group got comparable assistance.