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Metro
Defense Funds Can't Go To Scouts;
Judge Says Group Is Faith-Based
By
Michelle Boorstein
Washington Post Staff Writer
17 July 2005
The Boy
Scouts' Jamboree, held every four years, is an epic event for
bucolic Caroline County.
Held at Fort A.P. Hill for 25 years, the event more than triples
the county's population, bringing 40,000 Scouts, leaders and staff
together for 10 days of sports, conservation activities and the
construction of a tent city so elaborate that military officials
compare it to a refugee camp. County officials estimate that when
the latest jamboree begins a week from tomorrow, 300,000
additional people will stream into the area, including parents,
vendors and other spectators.
The jamboree is also an important event for the U.S. military,
which has been supporting it since the 1930s with contractors,
1,500 troops and $2 million a year in Defense Department funding.
However, that relationship is coming under scrutiny.
A federal judge ruled late last month that the Pentagon funding is
unconstitutional because the Boy Scouts are a religious
organization, requiring Scouts to affirm a belief in God. The case
was initiated by the American Civil Liberties Union.
The Scouts and their advocates -- including Senate Majority Leader
Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) and Rep. Jo Ann S. Davis (R-Va.), whose
district includes Fort A.P. Hill -- are livid, saying the jamboree
provides a unique training opportunity for troops. *_Among those
speaking out this week was Nathan Diament, director of public
policy for the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America,
who said the ruling in U.S.
District Court for the Northern District of Illinois amounts to
"discrimination against religious entities." _*
Even as the government plans its appeal and Davis pushes
legislation to try to ensure that Pentagon funding for the
jamboree continues, experts say the ruling by Judge Blanche
Manning is part of an escalating battle over government funding of
religious organizations.
Stanley Carlson-Thies, a former adviser to the Bush White House on
faith-based issues who now advises groups through the Center for
Public Justice, said people are closely watching such decisions.
He thinks that Manning's ruling should be overturned and that
society needs to focus more on what faith-based groups do, rather
than what they believe.
"We ought to say, different groups have different standards. We
may not like each of them, but they make up the mosaic of American
society. If we force them to have the same standards, then we lose
that diversity,"
he said.
The Boy Scouts declined to comment on whether the group would be
able to continue the $26 million event without government support.
According to the ACLU, the Pentagon spends $15,000 on pediatric
medical supplies, $10,000 for mementos and $5,000 on cookie dough
for the event.
Losing the jamboree would be a serious blow for Caroline, which
gets about $1 million in revenue during the event, said Gary
Wilson, the county's economic development director. Events such as
model train shows and book fairs are timed to coincide with the
jamboree, and local businesses print up promotional material to
hand out to Scouts' families.
Residents work at the event and sell the Scouts raw materials, and
guests fill hotels and restaurants.
"Our hotels are booked four years in advance," Wilson said.
Others in Caroline, a mostly rural county halfway between the
District and Richmond, are unconcerned.
"From everything I understand, Davis thinks there isn't going to
be a problem," said Peter Swain, who has led Troop 173 in Bowling
Green, the county seat, for 33 years. Swain was unaware that the
Jamboree received financial support from the Defense Department
but did not seem bothered by the idea.
"I think people are jealous of the Scouts because they are so
strong,"
he said. "They voted out homosexuals, and they won that. Who knows
where this will end?"
All sides agree that the relationship between the Scouts and the
U.S.
military is a longstanding, unusual one. The military has been
supporting the jamboree since 1937, and Congress eventually made
financial support of the event part of federal law. Davis and
Frist believe a new measure could be stronger and unchallengeable.
During the jamborees, thousands of U.S. troops set up and take
down 17,000 tents and provide security, communications support and
medical services, among other things.
But the relationship was called into question in 1999, when a
group of Chicago taxpayers -- including a Methodist minister and a
rabbi -- sued several government agencies for their financial
support of the Boy Scouts. The ACLU represented the group.
Named in the suit, along with the Pentagon, were the Chicago Board
of Education and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban
Development, because some schools and housing projects were
sponsors of Scout troops.
A settlement was reached on government sponsorship -- which
included military bases around the world as well -- and the
practice was stopped, but the part of the suit that concerns
jamboree funding remains in the courts for now.
At the heart of the case, Carlson-Thies said, is an issue that is
increasingly being brought before courts as the government
increases its partnerships with civic and service organizations:
How exactly does the First Amendment apply to the funding of
faith-based groups?
The ACLU and its supporters say groups that discriminate on the
basis of religion can receive government funding -- as many social
service groups do -- but that they typically are competing with
other groups for neutral grants that have specific requirements,
such as providing services for the homeless.
"To the extent that camping is a worthwhile activity, there's no
reason why this has to be limited to the Boy Scouts," said Adam
Schwartz, lead attorney for the ACLU of Illinois. "If the money is
good for local merchants, why not give other groups a crack at
it?"
But supporters of the Scouts-Defense Department relationship say
no other group would be able to provide a training event for the
military like the jamboree.
"This is a symbiotic relationship," said Robert Bork, a
communications consultant who represents the Boy Scouts on legal
issues.
And besides, Bork said, other youth groups -- including Big
Brothers, Big Sisters and the YMCA -- receive millions of dollars
from the federal government. Public money is also sometimes
"earmarked" for a specific recipient by having requirements
written with a particular group in mind, a practice that
constitutional law expert Robert Tuttle calls "the dark recesses
under your fridge in constitutional law" because it skirts the
rule of neutrality.
"Until the last 10 years, all the energy in this field was focused
on parochial schools; no one paid attention to faith-based
initiatives,"
said Tuttle, who teaches at George Washington University Law
School.
"Now that's changing. People are starting to understand there are
all these nooks and crannies in funding and really looking at
them."
The ACLU did not make funding of this year's jamboree an issue.
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