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 Attorney Jeff Mateer said he hoped the U.S. Supreme Court, which
last year declined to intervene in the 25-year legal battle, will
step in now that there has been an order to dismantle the cross, and
rule for his clients.
"We are definitely appealing and are committed to preserving this
veterans memorial the way it was intended to be, which includes a
cross," said Mateer, general counsel for the Liberty Institute,
which is representing the Mt. Soledad Veterans Memorial Association
in the case.
"The Association is committed to defending this until there is a
U.S. Supreme Court decision," Mateer said.
The cross, located between the Pacific Ocean and a major interstate
highway, is surrounded by walls displaying granite plaques that
commemorate veterans or veterans groups.
On Thursday, U.S. District Judge Larry Burns grudgingly ruled that
the 43-foot-tall (13-meter) cross, a local landmark that has stood
atop Mount Soledad in San Diego since 1954, must be taken down
because the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals found it violated a
constitutional ban on government endorsement of religion.
Burns said in his ruling that he disagreed with the Ninth Circuit
but that his hands were tied. He stayed his order to give the
veterans group and the Obama administration, which has also fought
removal of the cross, time to appeal.
The White House referred calls regarding the case to the U.S.
Department of Justice. A DOJ spokesman said attorneys there were
reviewing the ruling.
Daniel Mach, director of American Civil Liberties Union's program on
freedom of religion and belief who argued the matter for the
plaintiffs, hailed Burns' ruling as a "victory for religious
liberty."
"We firmly support the government's efforts to honor the service of
those who fought and died for this country, but there are many ways
to do that without playing favorites with religion," Mach said.
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25 YEARS OF LITIGATION
Mateer said the Supreme Court declined to review the case in 2012 on
the grounds that there hadn't been a final order issued to remove
the cross. But he said that in a similar case involving a cross put
up in the Mojave Desert to honor veterans of World War One, the
justices ruled that such a memorial did not represent government
endorsement of religion.
"What we say is that if you accept the ACLU's argument in the Mount
Soledad case, you are jeopardizing hundreds of veterans memorials
across the country, including those at Arlington National Cemetery,"
he said.
The Mount Soledad monument, which replaced an earlier cross erected
on the same spot in 1913, has been the subject of litigation since
1989, when two veterans sued San Diego to get it off city land.
In 2006, Congress intervened in the dispute, resulting in the
federal government taking ownership of the property.
A group of plaintiffs, including the Jewish War Veterans of the
United States of America, then sued. The Ninth Circuit ruled that
the dominance of the cross conveyed a message of government
endorsement of religion.
(Reporting by Dan Whitcomb; editing by Cynthia Johnston and Lisa
Shumaker)
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