INDIANAPOLIS, April 12, 2005 - Vowing to “make the journey to the Supreme Court” if necessary in supporting the Boy Scouts right to associate freely, the leader of the nation’s largest veterans organization today asked Congress to amend a law to stop the ACLU from using the courts to “destroy American values at taxpayer expense.”

In separate letters to Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-TN) and Rep. Jo Ann Davis (R-VA), National American Legion Commander Thomas P. Cadmus guardedly praised the “Support Our Scouts Act of 2005” but noted that several recent court decisions, if left unchallenged and allowed to stand, will likely find any statue that authorizes support for the National Boy Scout Jamboree unconstitutional. Frist and Davis are sponsoring the measure in each chamber.

“As the leader of the 2.7 million American veterans who proudly claim membership in The American Legion, I am calling upon you and your colleagues to place your immediate and fullest influence behind efforts to stem the attacks on the Boy Scouts of America and amend Title 42 to stop the cash flow to the ACLU in its tracks,” Cadmus wrote.

“The courts are awarding the ACLU millions of dollars in taxpayer paid ‘attorney fees awards’ authorized under the Civil Rights Act, 42 U.S. Code Section 1988,” Cadmus added. “While the law was written with good intentions - to ensure legitimate victims of civil rights violations could obtain representation - it has been exploited by the ACLU in First Amendment ‘establishment of religion clause’ cases. ACLU profits from these cases at taxpayer expense. Title 42 must be amended to preclude this abuse.”

The ACLU has waged a legal battle with Scouting because the youth organization requires its members to have a belief in God.

Posts of The American Legion around the world have been called upon to haul in the slack created by the loss of Scout charters formerly held by public schools and military units overseas.

“They will respond accordingly, I assure you,” Cadmus said. “Our intervention, however, or that by organizations of like mind will not put a halt to the tactics being used by the ACLU in their incessant attacks on the Boy Scouts of America. We will be looking to you and other leaders in Congress to help assure that Scouts and the Scouting movement continue to receive the support they have enjoyed for decades and so rightly deserve,” Cadmus wrote.

“As more Americans learn the ACLU adds insult to injury by collecting taxpayer dollars in the process of attacking the moral values of our nation, there will be a groundswell of ‘We the People’ united to stop this practice dead in its tracks,” Cadmus said.

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