Must Be That Time Of Year Again

(I’m filling in for ST the next few days. You can read more of my work at my blog, Liberty Pundit.)

About once a year, sometimes more, you get reports like this:

The city has decided that the Boy Scouts chapter here must pay fair-market rent of $200,000 a year for its city-owned headquarters because it refuses to permit gay Scouts.

The organization’s Cradle of Liberty Council, which currently pays $1 a year in rent, must pay the increased amount to remain in its downtown building past May 31, Fairmount Park Commission president Robert N.C. Nix said Wednesday.

City officials say they cannot legally rent taxpayer-owned property for a nominal sum to a private organization that discriminates. The city owns the land on which the council’s 1928 Beaux Arts building sits.

Scouting officials will ask the city solicitor for details on the appraisals that yielded the $200,000 figure, said Jeff Jubelirer, spokesman for the Cradle of Liberty Council.

The higher rent money “would have to come from programs. That’s 30 new Cub Scout packs, or 800 needy kids going to our summer camp,” Jubelirer said. “It’s disappointing, and it’s certainly a threat.”

The Supreme Court ruled in 2000 that Scouts, as a private group, have a First Amendment right to bar gays from membership.

So the city is basically saying “We disagree with what you are saying/doing, so we’re going to force you out.” All while hiding behind the ACLU and some Church and State clause that doesn’t exist. Nice, huh?

The founding fathers would be rolling in their graves over the assault on religion Christianity these days.

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