Some Encouraging Signs in Battle to Protect Mt. Soledad Cross

There have been some recent developments that are encouraging in the battle underway in San Diego to keep in place the Mt. Soledad War Memorial a cross honoring the men and women who have fought for this country who have given their lives to defend our freedoms.  The cross memorial has been in place for more than 50 years in one form or another.  And, simply put: there is no constitutional reason to remove it.

That has not stopped a concerted effort to challenge the cross memorial and years of litigation in an effort to get it removed.  Everything came to a head in May 2006 when a federal district court judge gave the City of San Diego 90 days to remove the cross or face a stiff penalty a $5,000 a day fine.  A when a federal appeals court refused to step-in, the Supreme Court of the United States did something extremely unusual it granted a stay putting the lower court order on hold while the appeals process continued.  Justice Anthony Kennedy took the extraordinary action following a request from the city.  The ACLJ which had been working in support of the citys efforts to save the cross filed a critical amicus brief with the high court supporting the citys request for a stay.   The Supreme Court understood that the lower court acted too quickly a rush to judgment, if you will, before considering all of the complex legal issues surrounding this case.  That permitted legal appeals to continue.

In recent weeks, there have been several important and encouraging developments in efforts to protect the cross memorial.

In January, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit dismissed as moot a case against the City of San Diego challenging the Mt. Soledad cross.  The appeals court dismissed the suit agreeing with the argument that the case is moot because the federal government now owns the land on which the memorial sits.

The federal appeals court understood what we had argued in our amicus brief:  that there was no reason for this case to proceed since the federal government lawfully took ownership of the land on which the memorial sits.   In December 2004 Congress designated the Mt. Soledad Veterans Memorial as a national memorial honoring veterans of the United States Armed Forces.  The Secretary of the Interior was instructed to accept, on behalf of the United States, all right, title, and interest of the City [of San Diego] in and to the Mt. Soledad Veterans Memorial in the event that the City offered to donate the Memorial.  Thats exactly what happened in July 2005, when San Diego voters approved a ballot referendum by 75-percent authorizing the City to transfer the Memorial to the federal government. 

Further, in August 2006, President Bush signed into law an important piece of Congressional legislation that transferred the land on which the memorial sits to the federal government.

And just this month we filed an amicus brief with the California Supreme Court asking the states highest court to deny review of an appeal in the state court system.   The California Court of Appeals declared that the 2005 ballot initiative transferring ownership to the federal government was constitutional and we believe theres no reason for the states highest court to consider this appeal.

While this has been a complicated and drawn-out ordeal, we have seen tremendous support from across the nation to protect the Mt. Soledad Memorial.  More than 170,000 Americans including more than 27,000 Californians have signed on to the ACLJs Petition to Preserve the Mt. Soledad Veterans Memorial.

There are still legal challenges ahead including new litigation in federal court challenging the federal law enacted in 2006 in which the federal government took control of the land on which the cross memorial sits.  

The ACLJ has represented members of Congress in this ongoing dispute and has filed numerous briefs in federal and state courts in support of the cross memorial.  We will continue to fight the legal battles ahead.

The Mt. Soledad War Memorial is an important historic landmark.  There is no constitutional crisis requiring this monument to be removed.  And as long as these legal challenges continue, the cross memorial remains an vital touchstone in the battle to protect our history and heritage and to ensure that the lives and sacrifices of our military veterans are commemorated.