A war memorial cross in a San Diego public park is unconstitutional because it conveys a message of government endorsement of religion, a federal appeals court ruled Jan. 4 in a two-decade-old case.
A three-judge panel of the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals issued the unanimous decision in the dispute over the 29-foot cross on Mount Soledad. The cross was dedicated in 1954 in honor of Korean War veterans.
The court said modifications could be made to make it constitutional, but it didn’t specify what those changes would be.
Federal courts are reviewing several cases of crosses on public lands being challenged as unconstitutional, including a cross erected on a remote Mojave Desert outcropping to honor American war dead. The Jan. 3 ruling could influence future cases involving the separation of church and state.
Justice Department spokesman Wyn Hornbuckle said the federal government, which is defending the San Diego cross, is studying the ruling and had no comment.
The American Center for Law and Justice, an evangelical Christian legal group which has fought to preserve the cross, called it “a judicial slap in the face” to military veterans and said they planned to ask the Supreme Court to intervene.
The legal fight over the Mount Soledad cross began in 1989 when atheist Philip Paulson sued the city of San Diego. A Jewish war veterans group also has been a plaintiff in the case, along with the American Civil Liberties Union. — ap