Embarrassing the Boy Scouts of America
Is apparently too good an opportunity to worry about either the defamation of the falsely accused named in the files or the disincentive now created for youth organizations to continue trying to track and exclude pedophiles from their organizations.
It will be interesting to see how this affects the Church’s practice of tracking pedophiles for exclusion from youth callings.
It will also be interesting to see how this court-ordered defamation of every falsely accused person in the BSA files plays out in society and in the courts.
And by “interesting” I mean in a “gee, look what the Death Star can do” kind of way. No sane court should ever have opened this can of worms.
Some may suggest I am not empathetic enough with the real victims of abuse by Scoutmasters. Let us say rather that they are not empathetic enough with the real victims of false accusations of abuse or with future victims of abuse that might have been deterred if youth organizations weren’t afraid to keep confidential files on potential abusers.
Filed under: Deseret Review | Tags: Boy Scouts, Hard cases make bad law, LDS, pedophilia
Adam Greenwood
June 15, 2012
An Oregon court did something similar with the Church. A bishop was falsely accused of child abuse but the Church ended up having to settle because the Oregon court ruled that the Church had to produce and make public all its financial records.
Its definitely a flaw in our federal system where a court in one state can damage a nationwide institution in matters that have nothing to do with that state. Maybe if they were limiting the disclosure to persons with Oregon ties, that would be a more reasonable injustice.
Vader
June 15, 2012
So it would appear that confidentiality of Church records is regarded by Oregon courts as a favor granted by the state rather than a right granted by the First Amendment.
Jay Quine
June 21, 2012
This article pertains only to Boy Scouts, Venturers, and Units seeking to earn a Hornaday award. Recall that Scouters, organizations, and individuals do not need to complete projects, nor do they apply for the award, rather they are nominated.
Nomad
June 22, 2012
Non sequitur. Your facts are uncoordinated.
Bookslinger
June 22, 2012
He commented merely to get the link.
Vader
June 22, 2012
We can do something about that.