Friday, April 30, 2010



SCOTUS allows cross in California’s Mojave National Preserve

The end of a very long saga
"In a significant shift away from church-state separation, the Supreme Court gave its approval Wednesday to displaying a Christian cross on government land to honor the war dead, saying the Constitution ‘does not require the eradication of all religious symbols in the public realm.’

Speaking for a divided court, Justice Anthony M. Kennedy said the First Amendment calls for a middle-ground ‘policy of accommodation’ toward religious displays on public land, not a strict ban on symbols of faith.

By a 5-4 vote, the justices reversed lower courts in California that ordered the U.S. Park Service to remove an 8-foot tall cross that has stood in various forms in the Mojave National Preserve since 1934 as a memorial to the soldiers of World War I.”

Source

5 comments:

Nutcase said...

"...Constitution ‘does not require the eradication of all religious symbols in the public realm"

DAMN! It's about time one of those morons on the sub-prime court actually READ the constitution.

It's amazing what you will find (or won't) if you actually read it.

Amazing!

Anonymous said...

It's nice to see sanity prevail. Well, once in a while anyway.

Anonymous said...

Another article stated that the ruling stipulated that, in this case, the cross was not erected as a Christian symbol, but to honor the war dead. Supposedly, this specific intent was stated by those who erected it back in the early 20th century.

Anonymous said...

The cross is/was also a cultural symbol of sacrifice where the victims were presumed to be at least from a christian-orientated background. If they were known to be jewish or muslim another appropriate symbol of their religion was normal placed.

All Seeing Eye said...

It's worrying that this was only on a 5-4 split. God help us if BHO gets the chance to radicalise the Court with more "wise latina" types.