WASHINGTON (ABP) — With an emergency order July 3, a justice of the Supreme Court has given temporary new life to a cross at the center of a church-state dispute in San Diego.
Justice Anthony Kennedy granted a stay that temporarily invalidates a lower court's Aug. 1 deadline for the removal of the Mount Soledad cross. The 29-foot-high monument, located prominently atop an 800-foot hill in a city park, has been at the center of a legal dispute for more than 15 years.
U.S. District Judge Gordon Thompson earlier ruled that the cross violates constitutional bans on government promotion of religion. He gave the city the Aug. 1 deadline for removing the monument. Had officials refused, San Diego would have faced fines of $5,000 a day until they moved the cross.
Kennedy's order came in response to cross supporters who appealed to the high court after the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals turned away their attempt to keep the cross.
Kennedy issued the ruling because he is the justice assigned to hear emergency requests from in the 9th Circuit when the Supreme Court, which ended its 2005-2006 term June 29, is in recess. His order did not deal with the case's merits but indicated that he or the full court would rule soon on the request for a permanent injunction against removing the cross.
The cross's legal saga began in 1989, when a local atheist, Phillip Paulson, sued the city for removal of the structure. He argued that the monument was clearly intended as a religious symbol and that its presence in so prominent a position in a city park suggests government preference for Christianity.
Attorneys for the city have argued that the monolith is simply a monument to veterans. Although some version of a cross has stood on the spot for the past century, the present version was dedicated as a Korean War memorial on Easter Sunday in 1954. It gradually grew to include plaques and walls with the names of casualties from the Korean conflict and other wars.
Paulson's attorneys have argued, however, that the private group that maintains the site did not add the commemorative elements until after the lawsuit was filed and that the cross continues to play a prominent role in Christian worship services.
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