More than 100 members of Congress filed an amicus brief supporting the Bladensburg cross, a “Peace Cross” that was erected after World War I to honor local war dead. The memorial was initially found to be permissible, but the Fourth Circuit court of appeals overturned that ruling, declaring it a violation of the US Constitution. The case has been appealed to the Supreme Court — which, to date, has not explicitly ruled on the long-running war on war memorials with religious iconography:

U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Rep. Steve Scalise (R-La.) today led the filing of an amicus brief on behalf of 109 Members of Congress to the Supreme Court of the United States in American Humanist Association v. Maryland–National Capital Park and Planning Commission.

It appears US Representative Joe Manchin of West Virginia is the sole Democrat to sign the brief.

(Last Memorial Day, the Washington Examiner laid into the plaintiffs in the case.)

Interestingly, atheist blogger Hemant Mehta declared that if the ruling resulted in other memorials being torn down, as the brief implies, he thought it was “good.”

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