Associated Press - ACLJ to Enter Legal Fight to Save Mount Soledad Cross in San Diego

May 9, 2006

(San Diego) - A legal advocacy center founded by television evangelist Pat Robertson has announced it will enter the legal battle to save a giant cross atop San Diego's Mount Soledad.

A federal judge last week gave the city of San Diego 90 days to remove the 29-foot-high cross or face $5,000 a day in fines.

The Washington, D.C.-based American Center for Law and Justice said Monday that it will support San Diego's effort to seek a stay of the judge's ruling.

"We believe that the city of San Diego has strong legal arguments to ensure that the cross on Mt. Soledad remains in place," said Jay Sekulow, the center's chief counsel.

Philip Paulson, an atheist and Vietnam veteran from San Diego has spent 17 years battling to have the cross removed from city-owned property above San Diego's seaside La Jolla neighborhood. He contends that the cross violates the constitutional separation of church and state.

The cross was originally raised in 1954 as a memorial to veterans of the Korean War.