The Mount Soledad war memorial cross in San Diego has been previously ruled as unconstitutional, violating the Establishment Clause. The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals recently refused to rehear the case or grant an en banc review. Notably, however, 5 of the 11 judges dissented in the denial of an en banc rehearing. The premise of their dissent was that the court had inappropriatelly analyzed the memorial: Read more
With frequent, long-lasting, and repeated lawsuits against military memorials with religious symbology, US Congressmen have proposed legislation that would explicitly permit just such memorials.
Rep. Duncan Hunter…introduced the War Memorial Protection Act in response to the federal Ninth Circuit Court’s Jan. 4 ruling, declaring the Mt. Soledad Veterans Memorial unconstitutional. Joining Hunter as co-sponsors are Congressmen Brian Bilbray of Solana Beach and Darrell Issa of Vista.
All three Congressmen are from the San Diego area. Several members of Bilbray’s family are reportedly memorialized at the Mount Soledad cross that inspired both the lawsuit and the legislation.
Also noted at the Religion Clause.
The long-running ACLU lawsuit against the Mount Soledad cross in San Diego reached another milestone at the 9th Circuit, with a three-judge panel ruling the cross is unConstitutional.
A war memorial cross in a San Diego public park is unconstitutional because it conveys a message of government endorsement of religion…The court said modifications could be made to make it constitutional, but it didn’t specify what those changes would be.
The 9th Circuit panel did not direct that the cross be torn down. Instead, Read more
The decision in Salazar v Buono directly relates to faith in the military profession, as its very basic premise has far reaching implications:
Is a cross on government land an unConstitutional endorsement of the Christian faith?
A variety of organizations reported on the Supreme Court ruling Wednesday essentially allowing the World War I memorial Mojave cross to remain standing. The ruling reversed the appeals court decision initially declaring the cross on federal land unConstitutional, and then declaring the US Congress transfer of land to the VFW invalid due to its attempt to “avoid” the injunction.
The Supreme Court issued six separate opinions, with no single majority opinion. The decision itself (pdf) is largely procedural, though the net effect Read more