Las Vegas Review-Journal / 2002 photo
The presence of a cross at Sunrise Rock on public land in the Mojave Desert has stirred controversy. For now, the National Park Service has covered the cross with a plywood box.
Posted on 07/27/2006 9:44:47 AM PDT by NormsRevenge
WASHINGTON – It's a war memorial. It includes a cross. It is on public land. And while politicians use congressional maneuvers to keep the cross there, others say it's unconstitutional and should be removed.
This sounds a lot like the cross atop Mount Soledad in La Jolla, but it's not.
About 275 miles away in the Mojave Desert stands a far less prominent but nonetheless controversial cross that, like the Mount Soledad cross, has been the subject of lawsuits and court-ordered removals. Unlike Mount Soledad, however, the battle surrounding the desert cross at a place called Sunrise Rock has focused on the U.S. Constitution's provisions guaranteeing separation of church and state.
Should the Mount Soledad cross end up in federal hands, as many in Congress would like, its future likely will rest on interpretations of the Constitution. And that, cross foes say, means the history of the Mojave cross may provide clues to the fate of the Mount Soledad cross.
“There are many significant similarities between the two cases,” said Alex Luchenister, an attorney for Americans United for Separation of Church and State, which argues that placing religious symbols on public land violates the Constitution.
“In both cases, the government maintained the crosses were war memorials, and in both cases, the courts ruled that displaying the crosses was unconstitutional,” he said.
Mount Soledad cross supporters say that from a legal perspective, the Mojave cross is far different.
“The Mojave is a 5-foot cross that's two metal beams stuck into a pile of rocks out in the middle of nowhere,” said Charles LiMandri, an attorney advising a group of Mount Soledad cross supporters. “A reasonable person walking through there would have no reason to think it's a war memorial.”
Last week, the House passed a bill by San Diego County's three Republican congressmen that seeks to preserve the Mount Soledad cross by giving title of the Korean War veterans memorial to the government and having it administered by the Defense Department.
A federal judge had ordered the cross removed on the grounds it violated the state constitution's ban on government support of religion. But the Supreme Court temporarily blocked that order this month, keeping the 29-foot-tall cross on its massive pedestal.
Capitol insiders suggest the Senate will likely approve the House bill, which has the support of liberals such as Sen. Barbara Boxer, a California Democrat. President Bush said he would sign it.
Cross foes such as James McElroy, who represents Philip Paulson, the Vietnam War veteran and atheist who filed a lawsuit over the Mount Soledad cross in 1989, have vowed to fight the land transfer if it becomes law. Observers say such a challenge would take the focus off the state constitution and place it on the U.S. Constitution – as happened in the Mojave case.
In at least two Western cases involving crosses on public land and the U.S. Constitution, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has ordered the removal of the displays.
The Mojave memorial, a cross of metal tubing in the Mojave National Preserve, honors World War I veterans. Five years ago, the American Civil Liberties Union sued to remove the cross on behalf of a former National Park Service worker who complained it violated the First Amendment. A federal judge in Riverside ordered the cross removed, and the 9th Circuit upheld that ruling.
Rep. Jerry Lewis, R-Redlands, intervened by passing a measure trading the cross's land to a private veterans group. A year ago, the same Riverside judge said Lewis' land transfer was invalid. The ruling is being appealed to the 9th Circuit.
For now, the National Park Service has covered the Mojave cross with a plywood box.
In 1996, the 9th Circuit ruled that a 51-foot lighted cross – also a war memorial – on city parkland in Eugene, Ore., was a religious symbol that violated the Constitution. The ruling reversed a lower court that sided with voters who passed a referendum to keep the cross in place.
“Whether it's the federal Constitution, federal property, state property – it doesn't matter,” said Peter Eliasberg, an ACLU attorney fighting to remove the Mojave cross.
Douglas Laycock, an expert on church-state separation matters at the University of Texas law school, said that even though the 9th Circuit last month refused to intervene in a lower court's order to remove the Mount Soledad cross on state constitutional grounds, federal law tends to be more flexible.
The reconfigured U.S. Supreme Court – with Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Samuel Alito – is seen as more inclined to allow religious symbols in public places if the displays have historical value or nonreligious meaning.
“The court has never said here's an absolute rule – a city can't put this stuff up if it's religious,” Laycock said. “They're not going to say the president can't issue Thanksgiving proclamations. There's always going to be a layer of government sponsorship of religion they will view as insignificant.”
The presence of a cross at Sunrise Rock on public land in the Mojave Desert has stirred controversy. For now, the National Park Service has covered the cross with a plywood box.
Strangely missing from my copy. I must have the expurgated version.
"For now, the National Park Service has covered the cross with a plywood box."
That's creepy. I wonder about the mentality of the people obsessed with removing a symbol of love, sacrifice and hope. Are those values we should fear?
I've had no success, whatsoever, in my efforts to understand what either of these crosses has to do with the constitutional bar to Congressional establishment of a particular religion or religious denomination as a state (i.e., national) religion. Tolerating the presence of those crosses on government-controlled land is not in any sense equivalent to a Congressional act prohibited by the First Amendment.
This type of controversy always puzzles me. Then I remember: Vampires are afraid of crosses.
Nobody has snuck up there at night and painted a cross on the box?
I am kind of embarassed to say this, but I was in San Diego (in Navy) and never noticed this cross. I don't see why they make such big deals over something that clearly must be something to look for.
"T"
violades the separashun of church and sdade?
I believe dad da NEA should pay me $1 Gazillion Bucks!
(I'll splid id wid FREEPERS huh!)
Cross at Sunrise Rock in the Mojave Desert.
The stunning Mt Soledad cross (looks like a depiction of Christ's Crucifixion).
Did I say Christ? Lordy, them ACLU'ers and cyberstalkers' are gonna get their panties in a twist.
Mmmmmmm.....vallium and vodka......that oughta calm 'em down.
Many thanks for posting the map of the Coss at Sunrise Rock in the Mojave Desert.
We should all make a special effort to get there and see this marvelous depiction of America.
Mine too!
Dang!
The fed's had better put up a tall barrier along I-40 at Groom, TX so that passersby will not have to look at THIS!!
http://crossministries.net/
Texas?
Them Christian-hating pansies better not mess with Texas.
Things change.
Doesn't mean people of faith are excluded from the governing process. Only that government should stay out of the afairs of religion. The founders fled England for that specific reason----to be able practice faith as they wished, without gov't interference.
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