WorldNetDaily - ACLJ: Mt. Soledad Case "Should Be Put To Rest"

February 3, 2007
by WorldNetDaily.com

A brief has been filed with the California Supreme Court on behalf of nearly two dozens members of Congress asking that a lower court ruling in the dispute over the Mt. Soledad Memorial be affirmed.

That lower court decision concluded that a ballot proposition in which San Diego voters overwhelmingly supported a plan to donate the memorial and its land to the federal government was constitutional.

The new filing comes from the American Center for Law and Justice, which wants the state Supreme Court to deny a further review of the dispute and allow the cross memorial to stay where it is.

The ACLJ's filing come just a few weeks after a federal appeals court dismissed a separate legal proceeding that challenged the cross memorial.

"The state appeals court got this right and there is simply no reason for the California Supreme Court to take this appeal," said Jay Sekulow, chief counsel of the ACLJ, which is active in defending the constitutionality of the cross.

"It's clear the legal challenges at both the state and federal levels are not succeeding and we're confident that ultimately this issue can be put to rest once and for all. The Mt. Soledad Memorial is a historically significant tribute honoring veterans of the U.S. Armed Forces and poses no constitutional crisis," he said.

The filing by the ACLJ represents itself and 20 members of the 110th Congress including U.S. Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., who sponsored legislation that transferred control of the Mt. Soledad Memorial to the federal government. That legislation was signed into law by President Bush in August 2006.

In addition to Congressman Hunter, the ACLJ represents 19 other members of Congress: Todd Akin, Gresham Barrett, Eric Cantor, Michael Conaway, Barbara Cubin, John Culberson, Phil Gingrey, Jack Kingston, John Kline, Kenny Marchant, Patrick McHenry, Mike McIntyre, Gary Miller, Marilyn Musgrave, Randy Neugebauer, Joseph Pitts, Todd Tiahrt, Dave Weldon, and Lynn Westmoreland. The ACLJ also represents Advocates for Faith and Freedom, a California-based non-profit law firm.

The ACLJ brief contends the panel of the California Court of Appeals correctly ruled that the city's ballot proposition in which San Diego voters overwhelming supported the transfer of the memorial to the federal government was indeed constitutional.

"The Petition for Review should be denied because the clear purpose and effect of Proposition A is to preserve a historically significant war memorial, not to proselytize a particular religious viewpoint or coerce any religious activity," the brief concludes.

The ACLJ brief was filed just weeks after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit dismissed a federal challenge against the city of San Diego, determining that legal challenge was moot since the federal government now owns the land on which the monument sits.

That brought to a close one chapter of the multiple-front battle over the cross, the ACLJ said.

The case to remove the cross originally was brought on behalf of an atheist, Phillip Paulsen, who died in 2006. Pending are the current state challenge, and a federal lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the memorial.

The dispute began in 1989, and at one point the arguments included an order for San Diego to take the cross down. But in 1998 the city sold the property to the Mt. Soledad War Memorial Association, which again was challenged in court. The sale originally was upheld but later ruled unconstitutional by the full panel of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco and remanded back to district court to work out a remedy.

Then Proposition A, passed by 75 percent in July 2005, called for the city to donate the cross to the federal government as the centerpiece of the veterans memorial.

More than 170,000 Americans, including 27,000 from California, have signed the ACLJ petition to preserve the memorial.