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| June 14, 2001 | |||
Vote Possible Today on Helms Amendment No. 648
Giving Boy Scouts Equal Access To Public School Facilities
The Boy Scouts got their start in England in the first decade of the 20th Century. Shortly thereafter, the principles of Scouting were imported into the United States. In 1916, the Boy Scouts of America was chartered by the Congress of the United States "to promote the ability of boys to do things for themselves and others" and "to teach them patriotism, courage, self-reliance, and kindred virtues." [36 U.S.C.A. §§30902 (2000 Supp.).] The Scouts continue to have strong support in Congress. Just last year, the House of Representatives voted on a bill to revoke the Scouts' congressional charter, and the proposal got 12 votes. [H.R. 4892, 106th Cong. 2d Sess., vote no. 468, September 13, 2000.]
In some places, though, the Boy Scouts are running into fierce opposition. "[L]iberal and left-wing activist organizations [have begun] a nationwide campaign to ostracize and isolate the Scouts. The Scouts may have a legal right to their policy on gays, but these groups want the rest of society to ostracize them if they continue to exercise that right." [P. Ferrara, "The Battle Over the Boy Scouts," The Weekly Standard at 21 (June 11, 2001).]
The Helms Amendment No. 648 (which is cosponsored by Senators Thurmond, Bob Smith, Inhofe, Brownback, Sessions, and Kyl) provides that no funds made available through the U.S. Department of Education may be provided to any public elementary school, secondary school, or educational agency if the school or agency discriminates against a youth group that uses "membership or leadership criteria" that prohibit the inclusion in their group of individuals who are homosexuals or individuals who reject the group's oath of allegiance to God and country. When he introduced the amendment, Senator Helms said, "School districts across America are now being pressured to kick the Boy Scouts of America out of federally funded public school facilities . . . because the Boy Scouts will not agree to surrender their first amendment rights, and they will not accept the agenda of the radical left. . . . This arrogant discriminatory treatment of the Boy Scouts must not be allowed to continue."
The House of Representatives agrees with Senator Helms. Already it has adopted an amendment that is identical to the Helms Amendment, and that amendment is contained in the House's education bill which is pending on the Senate Calendar. [Hilleary Amendment No. 24, 147 Cong. Rec. H 2617-20 (daily ed. May 23, 2001), now §§921-23 of H.R. 1.]
Whether the Senate will endorse the Helms Amendment remains to be seen, but it is clear that Senator Helms and the House of Representatives intend to defend the policies and practices of the Boy Scouts of America, a group that proudly clings to its standards. For example, the Scouts require their members to take the Scout Oath, and to take it seriously: "On my honor I will do my best to do my duty to God and my country and to obey the Scout Law; to help other people at all times; to keep myself physically strong, mentally awake, and morally straight." Each year in the United States, more than 1 million adult leaders and 3 million boys gladly take that oath. The Boy Scouts of America is infused with honor, duty, faith, patriotism, service, and traditional morality, just as its oath says, and it seeks to instill those virtues in boys.
The Helms Amendment should sound familiar. It has its roots in the Equal Access Act of 1984, and it has other important precedents, as well:
The Equal Access Act provides, "It shall be unlawful for any public secondary school which receives Federal financial assistance and which has a limited open forum to deny equal access or a fair opportunity to, or discriminate against, any students who wish to conduct a meeting within that limited open forum on the basis of the religious, political, philosophical, or other content of the speech at such meeting." 20 U.S.C.A. §4071(a). The constitutionality of the Act was sustained in Board of Education of Westside Community Schools v. Mergens, 496 U.S. 226 (1990).
Title 10 denies Federal funds to colleges and universities that prohibit ROTC programs or military recruiters on campus. The provision on military recruiters says that "no funds" which are made available for the Departments of Defense or Transportation, or within the Labor-HHS-Education Appropriations Act, "may be provided by contract or by grant . . . to an institution of higher education (including any sub-element of such institution)" if the Secretary of Defense determines that the institution "has a policy or practice . . . that either prohibits, or in effect prevents" access to campus for the purpose of military recruiting. 10 U.S.C.A. §983(b).
Title 20 denies Federal funds to educational agencies that willfully violate a Federal court order regarding school prayer. "Any State or local educational agency that is adjudged by a Federal court of competent jurisdiction to have willfully violated a Federal court order mandating that such local educational agency remedy a violation of the constitutional right of any student with respect to prayer in public schools . . . shall be ineligible to receive Federal funds under this chapter until such time as the local educational agency complies with such order. . . ." 20 U.S.C.A. §8900; see also, §6061.
Additionally, the Helms Amendment is as topical as this week's headlines. On Monday, the Supreme Court struck down a public school's refusal to allow a private Christian group to use school facilities during non-school hours on the same basis as the school permitted use by nonreligious groups. Good News Club v. Milford Central School, 2001 WL 636202 (No. 99-2036, decided June 11, 2001). The school's discriminatory rule was held to abridge the club's free-speech rights under the First Amendment.
The rule that was struck down this week in Good News Club is not unlike a similar rule recently invoked in Broward County, Florida, and then enjoined by a Federal district court, Boy Scouts of America v. Till, 136 F. Supp. 2d 1295 (S.D. Fla. Mar. 21, 2001). To understand the Helms Amendment, it is helpful to understand the case from Florida.
The Broward County School Board has a policy that permits numerous private organizations to use its 203 schools and centers during non-school hours. The school board also employs a nondiscrimination policy that prohibits the rental, use, or enjoyment of school facilities by any organization that discriminates on the basis of age, race, color, disability, gender, marital status, national origin, religion, or sexual orientation.
For many years, the local arm of the Boy Scouts of America had used Broward County facilities, but the school board decided to end its relationship with the Scouts. According to the Federal judge, the board's decision was "prompted by" the Scouts' policy on homosexuals and the decision of the U.S. Supreme Court in Boy Scouts of America v. Dale, 530 U.S. 640 (2000).
The Scouts' official policy which so offended the school board is this: "The Boy Scouts of America has emphasized traditional family values since the inception of the movement. We believe avowed homosexuals do not provide a role model for Scouts that is consistent with the values of the Scout Oath and Law. Accordingly, the Boy Scouts of America does not accept avowed homosexuals as members or leaders." Quoted at 136 F. Supp. 2d at 1299. That policy, coupled with the Supreme Court's holding in Boy Scouts of America v. Dale that the Scouts have every right to adhere to their policy, seems to have been the last straw for the school board.
The school board's indignation about discrimination was highly selective, however. While the board was expelling the Scouts it was overlooking many other examples of discrimination. As the Federal district court pointed out, 136 F. Supp. 2d at 1303-04, the board did not take action against numerous "sororities, pom pom teams, and cheer-leading teams" that use Broward facilities but discriminate against boys. The school board did not give the boot to the Florida Youth Orchestra or the Biddy Basketball League which discriminate against the elderly. Nor did the board revoke the privileges of the Service Agency for Senior Citizens which discriminates against the young. The board left the Urban League alone, although the League "conducts programs for African-American children," and the board ignored Zeta Phi Beta sorority which is even more selective, conducting programs only for African-American girls. Religious groups were left untouched although some Christian denominations continued to use school swimming pools for baptisms - but only for persons of their own faith!
Meanwhile, the Broward County School Board attempted to expel the Boy Scouts of America for refusing to admit avowed homosexuals. One can't help but suspect that the Boy Scouts were not denied access to Broward County facilities because they "discriminate," but because they are so very politically incorrect - and nothing is more politically incorrect these days than traditional sexual morality.
The Senate should vote to protect the vital youth organization it has chartered and cherished for 85 years.
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