A Federal jury has ruled against the City of Philadelphia in its attempt to get the Boy Scouts of America to start paying $200,000 to lease city-subsidized real estate it currently pays just $1 year for, in a unanimous decision a federal jury says the city cannot use the Boy Scouts gay discrimination as a reason to evict. Lawyers for the Scouts “expect U.S. District Judge Ronald Buckwalter [an ex-Scout of course] to issue a permanent injunction that bars the Scouts’ eviction based on their anti-gay policy,” but worth noting is a clause in the city’s lease that allows them to evict for any reason

The federal case made no sense at all. There are no disputed factual issues. So why did a jury even hear the case? Juries don’t rule on whether city policy is unconstitutional. Judges do that. Yet this bizarre federal judge – who has a long affiliated with the scouts – has done everything possible to thwart the eviction, including staging a meaningless jury trial.

The city of Philidelphia should appeal this ruling promptly and at the same time moves to evict the scouts for fiscal reasons, which they are permitted to do under the lease.  And an ethics complaint and investigation should be slapped on Judge Ronald Buckwalter.