Pat Dollard | Young Americans

Cross Stays on Mountain, Judge Rules

By Susan Jones (CNSNews)

A federal judge in San Diego says a giant cross that looks over the city from Mount Soledad may stay where it is.

The cross, part of a national veterans’ memorial, has been at the center of a legal battle for 20 years. The cross itself is 29 feet tall, but including the base, it towers 43 above the ground.

“The Court finds the memorial at Mt. Soledad, including its Latin cross, communicates the primarily non-religious messages of military service, death and sacrifice,” Judge Larry Alan Burns wrote. “As such, despite its location on public land, the memorial is Constitutional.”

The ruling noted that unlike Ten Commandments memorials — which begin with the phrase, ‘I am the Lord thy God’ — an unadorned cross “issues no commands, instructions, or teachings, nor does it express acknowledgement of anything.”

The court noted that the only verbal elements contained in the memorial are those found in the plaques, bollards and paving stones under the cross — and no one has challenged those.

“Any exhortation emanating from this passive monument pertains to remembering the veterans who are recognized there,” the ruling said.

According to the Thomas More Law Center, a conservative public interest law firm, the memorial contains more than 2,000 plaques honoring individuals or groups of veterans. Some of the plaques honor Jewish veterans.

In a friend of the court brief, the Law Center argued on behalf of the families of two Marines killed in Iraq. Marine Majors Michael D. Martino and Gerald Bloomfield III died on Nov. 2, 2005 when their attack helicopter was shot down.

“This is a wonderful victory, not only for the families of Majors Martino and Bloomfield who can have some comfort knowing that the memories of their loved ones are preserved under the Cross, but for all Americans who care about our young men and women who have sacrificed their lives in defense of our country,” said Richard Thompson, the president and chief counsel for the Law Center.

“Sadly, I fully expect the ACLU attorneys to appeal this decision to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. So this fight is not over,” he added.

The American Civil Liberties Union, which is fighting to remove the cross, has sixty days to appeal.

In 2006, Congress acquired the site by eminent domain from the city of San Diego. The site is recognized as a national war veterans’ memorial.