Federal District Court Judge Napoleon Jones has told the U.S. Justice Department to stay out of his courtroom. The U.S. Justice Department filed to be heard as a friend of the court on whether the Boy Scouts should lose their lease in a San Diego park because they discriminate against atheists and gays. Jones rejected the Justice Department’s argument that the outcome of the San Diego case would affect another case involving the Scouts in Illinois, where the U.S. government is a defendant. In a ruling issued on March 15, Jones also said the Scouts were adequately represented in San Diego and do not require the government’s assistance.

“I’m glad that Judge Jones did that,” said local attorney M.E. Stephens, who has been working with the ACLU on the case. “It sends a really clear message that Judge Jones is in control of his courtroom. He’s in control of his docket. He’s not going to be pushed around, Department of Justice or no Department of Justice. They did not have a legal basis to be in the case and I am delighted that he has the guts to do that, to say, ‘This is a United States Courtroom and you can’t push your way in here, I don’t care if you are the Department of Justice’, and I thought he was right on legally and he was right on principle.”

The Boy Scouts issued a statement saying they were disappointed, and that the Justice Department had sought to uphold principles enshrined in the Constitution.

“We are disappointed the government will not have the opportunity to be heard and participate in this matter,” said Casey Stavropolous, a spokeswoman for the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division. Stavropolous declined further comment.

The Scouts have been tied up in a four-year legal battle with the ACLU over the group’s lease on land on Fiesta Island and in Balboa Park. In August, Jones ruled that the lease was unconstitutional. Following a failed appeal by the Scouts, the city voted to stay out of the case and agreed to pay a settlement of nearly $1 million in January. The Scouts then sued San Diego to stop the city from ending the lease and later added a complaint that city workers were harassing them by issuing parking tickets and selectively enforcing ordinances.

ACLU attorney M. Andrew Woodmansee said he was relieved the Justice Department would not be allowed to put its reputation and considerable resources behind the Scouts.

“The government should be fighting discrimination and not aiding it,” Woodmansee said.

Last year, Jones found the city acted improperly by leasing the Scouts 18 acres in Balboa Park. The judge found the city’s action was an implicit endorsement of the Scouts’ “inherently religious programs and practices.” The judge allowed the Fiesta Island lease to proceed to trial. Both sides will make arguments in court next month.

The Scouts have run a campground in the northwest corner of Balboa Park for nearly half a century. They also operate a youth aquatic center on Fiesta Island built with $2 million raised by the Scouts.

Harold Johnson of the Pacific Legal Foundation, a conservative law firm that sought to intervene in a portion of the case, said Jones’ decision was “disappointing and puzzling.”

“Yes, the court has the freedom to accept or reject an amicus brief – but this is not a brief from ‘Joe Schmo,’ it’s from the United States Justice Department,” Johnson said. “The court’s deliberations will be the poorer for not having the benefit of the Justice Department’s insights.”

Jones’ rejection of the U.S. Justice Department’s entry into the case goes far beyond the local Boy Scouts issue and strikes at the heart of President Bush’s Faith-Based Initiatives plan.

“I think that what it is all about, Bush’s faith-based initiatives and wanting to protect the legal basis to do those,” Stephens said. “Because the scouts are a religious organization, he’s got to protect them in order to continue pushing the religious agenda under the smokescreen so that it looks secular, but in fact isn’t.”