The Boy Scouts of America are suing the City of San Diego in federal court, seeking to stop the City from terminating their lease for 18 acres of land in Balboa Park. The lawsuit specifically names City Council members Donna Frye, Ralph Inzunza, Scott Peters, Michael Zucchet, Charles Lewis and Deputy Mayor Toni Atkins, all of whom voted to approve a $1 million settlement of the lawsuit brought by the American Civil Liberties Union over the city’s “sweetheart” deal with the scouts for the lease.

“The Council was in a position where we had to decide to protect taxpayers’ dollars,” Deputy Mayor Atkins said. “We opted to step out of the fray by canceling the lease, but the Boy Scouts’ lawsuit puts the City back in the middle. I don’t know how many fronts they want to fight this battle on. It would seem to me that this action pushes the City to join the ACLU in fighting against them. I don’t understand that strategy.”

In the lawsuit that was filed in court in 2000, the ACLU argued in court that the Scouts should be evicted from the parks because the organization discriminates on the grounds of sexuality and religion.

Judge Napoleon Jones, Jr., ruled in favor of the ACLU this past July saying, “It is clear that the Boy Scouts of America’s strongly-held private, discriminatory beliefs are at odds with values requiring tolerance and inclusion in the public realm.”

Jones added in his summary judgment that the City of San Diego’s lease of land to the BSA was in violation of the California State Constitution and the first amendment of the United States Constitution.

Following an appeal of that decision by the scouts that failed in federal court, the City Council voted 6-2 to settle with the ACLU and pull out of all future protests that the BSA may file on the lease issue. Under the agreement, the City of San Diego agreed to pay $790,000 of the ACLU’s legal fees and $160,000 in court costs.

“The City left the Boy Scouts no choice but to sue them,” said George A. Davidson, attorney for the Scouts. “The Boy Scouts cannot stand by while their constitutional rights are violated. Boy Scouts are a private voluntary organization, no different than many other nonprofits who lease property from the City on the same terms.”

Davidson said the City is violating the Scouts’ constitutional rights by denying them the land. San Diego City Attorney Casey Gwinn and an attorney working with the ACLU said the lawsuit had no merit.

“Very often you read a complaint and say it’s a close call or it’s an arguable issue,” Gwinn said. “This looks like a public relations document. It does not look like a lawsuit. It’s not even a close call.”

Gwinn said the lawsuit would be assigned to U.S. District Judge Jones under federal court rules. Jones ruled last summer that the City of San Diego acted improperly when it leased land in the parks to the Scouts, saying it amounted to an endorsement of the Scouts’ “inherently religious programs and practices.”

Despite dismissing the suit as a public-relations stunt on the part of the Boy Scouts, the appeal was not unexpected and at the time of the ruling the Scouts touted a letter of support from the U.S. Justice Department that supports their lawsuit.

“Singling out the Boy Scouts for exclusion from such a program based on their viewpoint would raise serious First Amendment concerns,” wrote Eric W. Treene, special counsel for religious discrimination at the Justice Department, in response to a request for help from the Scouts. “The Civil Rights Division has an interest in participating in cases of this nature.”

In addition to asking the U.S. District Court to stop the City from terminating its Camp Balboa lease and to block the City’s settlement with the ACLU, the Scouts are also asking that the court rule that the City’s refusal to lease to the Scouts on the same terms available to other community groups violates the Scouts’ First Amendment rights of freedom of speech and freedom of association, as well as their Fourteenth Amendment right to equal protection under the law. The Scouts seek unspecified compensatory and punitive damages as well as attorneys’ fees and court costs.