San Diego Union-Tribune - ACLJ Offers Save-the-Cross Legal Represenation to San Diego

May 9, 2006

SAN DIEGO The American Center for Law and Justice, which focuses on constitutional law, announced Monday it will enter the legal battle to save the cross atop Mount Soledad.

A federal judge last week gave the city of San Diego 90 days to remove the cross or face a $5,000-per-day fine.

U.S. District Court Judge Gordon Thompson Jr. originally ruled in 1991 that having the cross on city-owned land violated the state constitution.

We believe that the city of San Diego has strong legal arguments to ensure that the cross on Mount Soledad remains in place, said Jay Sekulow, chief counsel of the Washington, D.C.-based ACLJ.

The Mount Soledad cross has been in place in one form or another for nearly 100 years, he said. It's part of a war memorial honoring the men and women who died to defend our freedoms.

The ACLU's lengthy legal battle to remove the cross underscores what most Americans already know the ACLU will stop at nothing to remove any symbol of our religious heritage and history even a war memorial, Sekulow said. This cross should remain in place and we're confident there's legal precedent to support that argument.

The ACLU, which is not directly involved with the latest battle over the cross, had no comment on Monday's announcement.

James McElroy, the attorney for the plaintiff, said last week that it was time to start the process for removing the cross. Ending the 17-year battle would strike a blow for religious tolerance, said McElroy, who represents atheist Philip Paulson.

But Mayor Jerry Sanders has said the cross is an integral part of San Diego history and has recommended that the City Council and City Attorney Michael Aguirre aggressively pursue all judicial remedies in order to save it, including seeking a stay from the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.

The ACLJ has offered Sanders legal assistance and said it will at the very least file friend-of-the-court briefs in support of the cross if the city's appeal moves forward.

The Thomas More Law Center, of Ann Arbor, Mich., which champions Christian causes, has also offered to represent the city on appeals at no cost.

Aguirre has said it would be misleading to San Diegans to say the city had a strong case.

The Mount Soledad cross was built in 1954 as a memorial to veterans of the Korean War. It was used as a backdrop for sunrise services until atheist Philip Paulson filed a lawsuit in 1989.

Judges twice ruled that the sale of the land surrounding the memorial to the Mount Soledad Memorial Association, which maintains the site, was unconstitutional.

A state judge ruled last October that the city's proposed transfer of the cross to the federal government was also unconstitutional.

Superior Court Judge Patricia Yim Cowett ruled that Proposition A which allowed the city to transfer the 20-ton cross and surrounding walls and plaques to the National Park Service so it could be designated a national war memorial was invalid and unenforceable.

In a special election last July, 75 percent of San Diegans who cast ballots voted for Proposition A.

Cowett ruled, however, that the proposed transfer would violate the state and federal constitution by giving preferential treatment to one religion over another.

In November 2004, a ballot measure failed that would have authorized a new sale of the cross and the land around it.