Mt. Soledad memorial cross to stand…for now
Posted on July 3, 2006
Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy issued a stay minutes ago, ordering that the memorial not be desecrated until all legal options are exhausted. Update/correction: Kennedy granted the stay to the city and the cross’ supporters without comment pending a further order from him or the entire court. It is unclear how long the stay will remain in effect or whether the Supreme Court would ultimately deny the appeals by the city and the cross’ supporters. However, that Kennedy issued a stay can be seen as nothing but positive. See the comments from Chuck Limandri, the attorney who’s been deeply involved in the effort to save the memorial.
The Supreme Court intervened Monday to save a large cross on city property in southern California.
A lower court judge had ordered the city of San Diego to remove the cross or be fined $5,000 a day.
Justice Anthony Kennedy, acting for the high court, issued a stay while supporters of the cross continue their legal fight.
Lawyers for San Diegans for the Mt. Soledad National War Memorial said in an appeal that they wanted to avoid the “destruction of this national treasure.” And attorneys for the city said the cross was part of a broader memorial that was important to the community.
In other Mt. Soledad news, ADF and the American Legion issued this release earlier today:
WASHINGTON � Alliance Defense Fund attorneys are stepping up their defense of a California war memorial with a brief submitted to the U.S. Supreme Court Friday on behalf of the American Legion. The brief argues in support of a stay of a district court ruling decreeing that a cross honoring veterans atop Mount Soledad be removed by Aug. 1. Failure to comply by the deadline would subject San Diego taxpayers to a fine of $5,000 per day.
�The Mount Soledad Veterans Memorial and other similar tributes honor those who truly understood the price of freedom, sacrifice, and responsibility,� said ADF Senior Counsel Gary McCaleb. �Removal of the cross would have no purpose other than to create heartache for the veterans� families and comrades who cherish their memory. Certainly, no good reason exists to dismantle the cross before a decision can be made on the appeal in this case.�
The battle to save the now 52-year-old cross began in 1989, after a single atheist backed by the American Civil Liberties Union sued the city of San Diego in an effort to remove it. On May 3, a federal district judge ordered the city of San Diego to remove the cross within 90 days or face a fine of $5,000 per day for every day beyond the deadline that the cross still stands.
According the friend-of-the-court brief filed Friday, �There is a strong federal interest at stake necessitating a stay. The Mt. Soledad Veterans Memorial is designated under federal law as a national veterans memorial, and the people of San Diego voted overwhelmingly to transfer the memorial to the federal government. A stay is necessary to preserve this powerful federal interest.�
A copy of the brief filed by attorneys with ADF and Liberty Legal Institute on behalf of the American Legion and the American Legion Department of California in San Diegans for the Mt. Soledad National War Memorial v. Paulson can be read at www.telladf.org/UserDocs/SoledadBrief.pdf.
For those who deny that the ACLU is on a relentlessly rabid campaign to remove any trace of our nation’s religious heritage, please digest the details of this case. The ACLU’s vampiric antipathy to the image of the cross has led them to fight this case for nearly two decades despite the overwhelming support from every group in San Diego for the memorial, including a 76% vote to save the memorial last year. What principle are they fighting for here? How does the mere existence of a cross on public land violate one’s religious liberty? How does this memorial to entire group of war heroes differ from the crosses on the graves of individuals on public land?
The ACLU has a slick PR machine, a highly-creative penchant for disinformation operations and a pliant media that casts them as a defender of what is right, but the public isn’t fooled. This case is one example of why America rejects the ACLU and its extremist agenda.
The plaintiffs may have preferred that the Supreme Court of three years ago would review this case. This new panel seems less likely to associate a cross in a national cemetary as an endorsement of a particular religion, even a 29-foot cross. This monument has been on Mt. Soledad for over 50 years and is an obvious landmark to residents of Southern California. The new court, with the addition of John Roberts and Samuel Alito and the subtraction of Sandra Day O’Connor, will no doubt have more sympathy to reality and not to the hypersensitivity of one atheist in San Diego.
Other sources: AP
» Filed Under 1st Amendment, ACLU, Church And State, News
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6 Responses to “Mt. Soledad memorial cross to stand…for now”
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You know that there is no such thing as seperation of church and state in the first amendment. So why has not any one sued the aclu for purjury. I have not the bux or the means to. Seems easy enough to me to just shut them up.
The facts is facts. It’s just not stated in the 1st. Just a thought.
Rafha1991, the problem is not the wording of the 1st amendment, it is the legal presidence that has been set by earlier court rulings. Facts are never facts when lawyers are involved.
Justice Anthony Kennedy surprized me. I was sure he would not grant the stay and I was wrong. I hope he forgives me.
It’s amazing that the ACLU truly believes that it is fighting the good fight. How can they not look themselves in the mirror and recognize the harm that they are doing to our country?
Wordsmith,
The ACLU is a non governmental organization connected to the United Nations that can not be concerned with loyalty to any one nation since they are a citizen of the world. There actions used to be called treason.