Boy Scouts to remain in low-rent Philly HQ

The Boy Scouts can stay.

After deliberating for about seven hours, a federal jury found yesterday that the city violated the local Boy Scouts' First Amendment rights by demanding that they repudiate the national organization's ban on gay membership or face eviction from their Center City headquarters.

The local chapter, called Cradle of Liberty Council, built the 1928 Beaux Arts structure on city-owned land at 22nd and Winter streets, near Logan Square, and has maintained it since. Like other nonprofits that lease property in Fairmount Park, Cradle pays $1 a year to the city.

The city contended at trial that Cradle had to abide by the city's anti-discrimination laws if it wanted to retain the lease.

Attorneys for the local chapter hailed the jury's decision.

"We expect to get an injunction from the court," said attorney Jason P. Gosselin. "We've asked for a permanent injunction from trying to evict the Scouts because of the city's opposition to the leadership policy."

That means that Cradle likely will maintain its cheap lease.

Gosselin said Cradle would also be seeking a court order to compel the city to pay at least $800,000 in legal fees and expenses to Cradle.

Doug Oliver, a spokesman for Mayor Nutter, said in an e-mail that the city was "disappointed that the jury did not appreciate the city's obligation to deploy municipal resources in a manner that protects the rights of all of Philadelphia's citizens."

Oliver said city lawyers would review the trial record to determine what legal options it has.

Cradle officials say they hope that the city doesn't pursue an appeal.

"What we really want is for this to be over with," Gosselin said. "What we would like to happen is to now sit down with the city and talk about a reasonable way we can put this behind us." He added that in its future dealings with the city, Cradle would be "negotiating from a position of strength."

One juror, a truck driver from Rheinhold, Lancaster County, said the jury "went back and forth" but tried to be "fair" in its deliberations. Merrill Arbogast, 40, a former Eagle Scout, said he was sensitive to the city's position that the national Scouts' policy banning gays is wrong.

"We do hope that eventually [Boy Scouts of America] will change their mind," he said, adding that the jury "does not fault the city."

Arbogast said that when he was a Scout, the issue of one's sexual orientation "never came up."

The jury's verdict came after a seven-day trial and more than two years of legal jousting in federal district court.

The dispute had been brewing since a landmark U.S. Supreme Court ruling in 2000 that the Boy Scouts were a private group and thus had a constitutional right to associate with whomever they wanted without government interference.

What's more, Cradle said it has provided tens of thousands of hours in community service to the city.

Numerous attempts to settle the matter proved fruitless.

In 2003, Cradle said it would oppose "any form of unlawful discrimination" but after the parent organization balked, Cradle said it would abide by the national policy that bans gay members.

The city then said it could no longer continue to subsidize a group that violated municipal anti-discrimination laws, and demanded that the Scouts pay $200,000 in annual fair-market rent, find other digs or face eviction.

Cradle filed its civil-rights lawsuit in May 2008, shortly before the city went to Common Pleas Court in an attempt to evict Cradle from its headquarters.

Last year, U.S. District Judge Ronald Buckwalter prevented the city from pursuing the eviction until the federal lawsuit was resolved.