Calif. Supreme Court Upholds Scouts Ouster

[davidinalameda]

http://www.365gay.com/Newscon06/03/030906scouts.htm

The California Supreme Court ruled Thursday that Berkeley did not violate the rights of youth sailors connected to the Boy Scouts of America when it demanded marina fees because the group violates a city anti-discrimination policy.

The city revoked free berthing privileges for the Berkeley Sea Scouts because the Boy Scouts bar atheist and gay members, which violates the city's 1997 policy to provide free berthing to nonprofits that don't discriminate.

The free speech case challenged the legality of removing or withholding public subsidies from groups whose ideals run counter to the government.

The justices ruled Berkeley, celebrated in the 1960s as the home of the Free Speech Movement, could demand that a group receiving subsidies renounce a policy of "invidious discrimination."