SCOTUS Says Veterans Memorial Cross Can Stay

CitizenLink: The U.S. Supreme Court ruled today that a veterans memorial cross currently covered up by a box in California's Mojave Desert can stay right where it is. In a 5-4 decision, the court agreed that the 9th Circuit decision holding the memorial unconstitutional needed to be reversed, even though there were not five votes for any particular legal basis for the reversal. The case now goes back to the trial court level.

The lower court order was the result of a suit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union in 2001 on behalf of a former Mojave Preserve employee who claimed to be "offended" by the cross.

"It is a disgrace that this memorial to our fallen veterans has been covered in a box of plywood for 10 years while the case made its way to the U.S. Supreme Court," said Kelly Shackelford, president and CEO of Liberty Institute, which represents Henry and Wanda Sandoz, the longtime memorial caretakers, and more than 4 million veterans through the VFW, The American Legion, Military Order of the Purple Heart, and the American Ex-Prisoners of War.

"We applaud the Supreme Court for overruling the decisions below, but this battle is not over. This box must come off. No war memorial with religious imagery is safe until the court rules that these memorials, which serve to remember our fallen heroes of the military, are allowed under the Constitution."

Various forms of the memorial cross have existed at the location since 1934, when the Veterans of Foreign Wars placed it at its current spot. In 2004, Congress authorized the transfer of one acre of land under the cross back to the VFW, a private organization, in exchange for five acres of other land. The ACLU argued that the land transfer was unconstitutional, and a district court judge agreed. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the lower court's decision.
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Reference prior story: Desert Cross Has Court in Hot Pursuit

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Tags: cross, Mount Soledad, California, SCOTUS, Supreme Court, ACLU, veterans memorial cross, Ninth U.S. Circuit Court, Mojave Desert To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!