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2019-06-21 -Land of the Free

94 Year Old Bladensburg, MD Peace Cross Honoring WW1 Vets Can Stay, U.S. Supreme Court Rules

[The Federalist] In a 7-2 ruling on Thursday, the Supreme Court decided that a 40-foot World War I memorial cross that has stood on public land in Maryland for 94 years does not violate the First Amendment. Writing the majority opinion, Justice Samuel Alito said the memorial, also known as the "Peace Cross," has become a prominent community landmark and should be upheld.

"After the First World War, the picture of row after row of plain white crosses marking the overseas graves of soldiers who had lost their lives in that horrible conflict was emblazoned on the minds of Americans at home, and the adoption of the cross as the Bladensburg memorial must be viewed in that historical context," Alito wrote. "Its removal or radical alteration at this date would be seen by many not as a neutral act but as the manifestation of ’a hostility toward religion that has no place in our Establishment Clause traditions.'"

In the concurring opinions, justices agreed that religious expression in the public square has been common throughout U.S. history and doesn’t need to be purged. Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Sonia Sotomayor were the two dissenters, arguing that displaying the Peace Cross on a public highway is implying that the government elevates Christianity over other faiths.

"As I see it, when a cross is displayed on public property, the government may be presumed to endorse its religious content. The venue is surely associated with the State; the symbol and its meaning are just as surely associated exclusively with Christianity," Ginsburg wrote.

Kelly Shackelford, the chief counsel to First Liberty, representead the plaintiff The American Legion in the case.

Posted by Besoeker 2019-06-21 03:37|| || Front Page|| [11132 views ] Top

#1 We we're founded as a Judeo/Christian country and all our laws and national raison d'etre should echo it.

"Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other."

-John Adams

Posted by Warthog 2019-06-21 08:43|| 2019-06-21 08:43|| Front Page Top

#2

Because thouest blood had kept us, freed us and by thy honor we remember. RIP our fine lads. Dare we to be worthy and not forget.
W.

Posted by Woodrow 2019-06-21 09:23|| 2019-06-21 09:23|| Front Page Top

#3 Allot of history there. Passed it many times. I had the pleasure of meeting one of the many sculptors of the Iwo Jima memorial.Very skinny Italian fellow. Within one thousand yards of the Peace Cross. The topmost hand is his. Look closely and you'll see it is the hand of an old man. Drawing of the memorial on his wall not framed and curled on the ends. He slept on an old canvas cot. He didn't speak much. I came, I went but I saw and remember. I have looked for his name but I understand 100 people were involved in this project.So he is lost to history.

Posted by Dale 2019-06-21 11:02|| 2019-06-21 11:02|| Front Page Top

#4 Ginsburg seems to forget, if you strip the civil rights of the majority in the name of minorities it isn't a republic anymore. Christianity is a culture as much as a religion in the West. You can't separate them without dire and destructive consequence as demonstrated by numerous atheist peoples democratic republics of the 20th and 21st century.

Posted by Procopius2k 2019-06-21 11:08|| 2019-06-21 11:08|| Front Page Top

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