An atheist who sued a school district for letting the Boy Scouts recruit in his son's school lost an appeal Friday when a court ruled there was no religious discrimination.
The Michigan Court of Appeals let stand a judge's ruling that the Mount Pleasant Public Schools' ties with the Boy Scouts of America did not violate the state's constitution or civil rights act.
The school district allowed the Boy Scouts to hang posters and have a recruiter invite students to an informational meeting.
A unanimous three-judge panel said the district's policy was acceptable because the Boy Scouts received no special treatment or emphasis compared to other groups that visited the schools.
"It had a secular purpose and did not advance religion over non-religion," Judge Bill Schuette wrote. "Simply because the Boy Scouts utilized the system does not itself create an Establishment Clause violation."
As interpreted by the courts, the Establishment Clause has come to mean that government generally is prohibited from promoting or endorsing religion.
The plaintiff, John Scalise, volunteered to become a troop leader in 1997 when his third-grade son, Benjamin, joined the Cub Scouts. But the elder Scalise declined to sign the Scouts' declaration of religious principle, which is required of leaders. The declaration recognizes an "obligation to God."
The Boy Scouts revoked Scalise's membership, and he pulled his son from the group.
The Scalises then sued the Boy Scouts and Mount Pleasant Schools in 2000, alleging religious discrimination.
At first, Isabella County Circuit Court Judge Paul Chamberlain found the defendants liable for the school-hour recruiting but later changed his mind. The appeals court said the recruiter's visit was informative -- not educational -- and therefore did not constitute a traditional government function.
Timothy Taylor, the Scalises' attorney, called the ruling the "most judicially corrupt and dishonest" he had seen.
"This was a political decision -- not a legal one, and one in which the undisputed facts of the case were completely disregarded," Taylor said.
He said an appeal likely will be filed with the Michigan Supreme Court.
But the Boy Scouts and school district said they did nothing wrong.
"We were simply trying to provide boys with an opportunity to join scouting," said Dale Holbrook, Scout executive for the Lake Huron Area Council. The council oversees 15,200 Boy Scouts in northeast and central Michigan, including Mount Pleasant.
Mount Pleasant Schools Superintendent Gary Allen said the ruling "validates our operating procedures and policies."
But he noted the district no longer allows the Boy Scouts and many other groups to hand out fliers because the schools were being bombarded with literature.
"People assumed our decision was related to the lawsuit, but it wasn't," Allen said. "We were getting 250,000 fliers a year."