P
Patriot Games
Guest
http://www.newsmax.com/insidecover/court_cross/2007/09/06/30550.html
Court Bans Christian Cross on Private Land in Park
Thursday, September 6, 2007
The U.S. government cannot trade a parcel of land to private hands to allow
a Christian cross to remain in the middle of a vast federal preserve, a U.S.
appeals court ruled on Thursday.
At issue is the Establishment Clause of the U.S. Constitution, which bars
the government from favoring any one religion, as it applies to a lone white
metal Latin cross in the Mojave National Preserve in southern California
between Los Angeles and Las Vegas.
In 2004, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that a cross on a
prominent rock on public land was unconstitutional, prompting Congress to
pass a law allowing a trade so its immediate area would become private land.
People have been putting crosses in the spot since the 1930s, most recently
with one man drilling a metal cross into the rock a decade ago without
permission. In 1999, a man requested and was denied permission to build a
Buddhist shrine there, setting the stage for a tangled legal fight.
"A grave constitutional injury already exists," Judge Margaret McKeown wrote
for a three-judge panel that upheld a lower court ruling. "The permitting
display of the Sunrise Rock cross in the Preserve is an impermissible
governmental endorsement of religion.
"The government's long-standing efforts to preserve and maintain the cross
atop Sunrise Rock lead us to the undeniable conclusion that the government's
purpose in this case is to evade the injunction and keep the cross in
place," the judge said. "Carving out a tiny parcel of property in the midst
of this vast Preserve - like a donut hole with the cross atop it - will do
nothing to minimize the impermissible governmental endorsement."
Court Bans Christian Cross on Private Land in Park
Thursday, September 6, 2007
The U.S. government cannot trade a parcel of land to private hands to allow
a Christian cross to remain in the middle of a vast federal preserve, a U.S.
appeals court ruled on Thursday.
At issue is the Establishment Clause of the U.S. Constitution, which bars
the government from favoring any one religion, as it applies to a lone white
metal Latin cross in the Mojave National Preserve in southern California
between Los Angeles and Las Vegas.
In 2004, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that a cross on a
prominent rock on public land was unconstitutional, prompting Congress to
pass a law allowing a trade so its immediate area would become private land.
People have been putting crosses in the spot since the 1930s, most recently
with one man drilling a metal cross into the rock a decade ago without
permission. In 1999, a man requested and was denied permission to build a
Buddhist shrine there, setting the stage for a tangled legal fight.
"A grave constitutional injury already exists," Judge Margaret McKeown wrote
for a three-judge panel that upheld a lower court ruling. "The permitting
display of the Sunrise Rock cross in the Preserve is an impermissible
governmental endorsement of religion.
"The government's long-standing efforts to preserve and maintain the cross
atop Sunrise Rock lead us to the undeniable conclusion that the government's
purpose in this case is to evade the injunction and keep the cross in
place," the judge said. "Carving out a tiny parcel of property in the midst
of this vast Preserve - like a donut hole with the cross atop it - will do
nothing to minimize the impermissible governmental endorsement."
