Exclusion of Twin Cubs Is Upheld : Ruling: An appeals court says the county Boy Scouts of America council can keep 2 Anaheim Hills brothers out for refusing to swear ‘duty to God.’

SANTA ANA —  In another legal blow for twin Anaheim Hills Cub Scouts, an appeals court Thursday issued a ruling upholding, at least for now, the Boy Scouts’ right to keep the 9-year-old brothers out of the organization because they refuse to swear an oath to God.

The 2-1 decision by the 4th District Court of Appeal extends its earlier suspension of a lower court’s preliminary injunction until a hearing on the matter can be held.

With the ruling, the county council of the Boy Scouts of America can continue to exclude William and Michael Randall from the organization for not subscribing to its moral tenets, including swearing a “duty to God.”

No hearing date has been scheduled for the appeal of the preliminary injunction.

The injunction, issued April 25 by a Superior Court judge, permitted the twins to stay in their pack without being required to swear any type of religious oath. The appeals court stayed the injunction May 9 and extended the suspension Thursday.

Immediately after hearing about the ruling, the boys’ father, lawyer James Grafton Randall, said: “This is disgusting. . . . Two little boys are being told by a big organization that they don’t want them around, that they are not good enough for them.”

Randall said he also lost his job Thursday at a law firm in Orange. He said his employers told him he was let go because of financial cutbacks, although he blamed publicity from the lawsuit for his termination.

The court battle began in February, when the Randalls filed a lawsuit alleging that the Boy Scouts had denied the twins their constitutional rights. Because the organization is a public entity, the Randalls said in their suit, the Boy Scouts should be prohibited by state public accommodations laws from discriminating against members on religious grounds.

Boy Scouts attorneys argued that the organization is a private group whose members should have the freedom not to associate with boys who reject the group’s moral tenets.

The Randall boys had said earlier that they think God “sort of sounds like a make-believe character.”

Boy Scouts of America has continued to maintain that the twins would be welcome as long as they pay membership dues and accept the group’s rules--including the oath.