It began when an Oregon who said he was "offended" by this historic cross honoring WWI war dead.
(SALEM, Ore.) - Religious groups and veteran's organizations are applauding arguments from the federal government in favor of a historic cross in the California Desert, built by war veterans to honor their fallen.
Cross before being covered.Photo: Christian Post
The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty explains that in a brief filed in the Supreme Court in Salazar v. Buono, the United States government defended the constitutionality of the 75-year old Mojave Desert Cross, which memorializes World War I veterans.
The symbol which clearly represents the Christian faith, was constructed in 1934 by veterans of the First World War. In 1994, Congress created the national preserve, which placed the land under the National Park Service.
It was argued by the government that the case should be dismissed because the plaintiff, Frank Buono of Oregon, has not been personally injured or denied any rights by the presence of the cross, but merely claims to be offended by it.
"Stripping this country of every symbol-even the religious ones-that might offend somebody somewhere will impoverish American culture," said Eric Rassbach, National Litigation Director of the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty.
"The First Amendment guarantees the right to speak and believe freely; it does not guarantee the right to silence those who disagree with you."
Salazar v. Buono came to be commonly known as the Mojave Desert Cross case. At hand, was whether the 75-year old cross memorializing World War I veterans could exist within what is now a federal preserve. The initial decision of the district court was that the cross had to be removed.
The Department of Interior was then directed by Congressional legislation, to transfer an acre of land, including the cross, to the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) in exchange for a parcel of equal value elsewhere in the preserve.
"The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit then permanently enjoined the government from implementing the Act," a release from the Becket Fund explained.
The first attempt to remove the cross from site came in the form of a burlap sack that was used to cover it. But the success of that approach was short-lived and when the sack blew away, the court decided that the cross should be covered by a plywood box.
For a period of time, people working closely to the issue like Rassbach, worried that they stood to lose far more than just the Mojave Desert Cross.
He said, "If the Supreme Court strikes down this memorial, tens of thousands of memorials around the country stand at risk."
History of case
According to On the Docket: Supreme Court News, the case began in 2001 when the American Civil Liberties Union filed suit in 2001 on behalf of a former park service employee, Frank Buono, who is a Roman Catholic.
Buono's allegation was that the cross violated the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment. The suit also noted that the park service had denied a request to have a Buddhist shrine erected near the cross.
The first cross at this location was constructed in 1934. This cross was the focusof a lawsuit between the NPS and the ACLU. Photo by Eric Nystrom, 2001/nps.gov
U.S District Court Judge Robert J. Timlin of the Central District of California agreed with Buono. His 2002 ruling stated that the “primary effect of the presence of the cross” was to “advance religion.”
Peter Eliasberg, staff attorney with the ACLU/SC said, "This is a huge victory not only for the ACLU but also for the First Amendment."
Eliasberg continued by saying government shouln't be in the business of advancing one particular religion over another, or denigrating one religion or another.
"Time and time again the courts have held that erecting a permanent religious fixture on federal land violates the United States Constitution. The violation is even plainer here, where the government refused a citizen's request to erect a symbol of another religion in the same area where the Mojave Cross stands."
The response from Congress in 2004 was the passage of legislation that directed the Department of the Interior to transfer approximately an acre of land to the Veterans of Foreign Wars in exchange for a privately owned plot nearby.
A three-judge panel on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit upheld the lower court ruling and invalidated the land transfer on September 6th 2007.
They noted that “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” of the religious symbol.
The ruling was appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court by the Bush administration.
It was argued that the “seriously misguided decision” requires the government “to tear down a cross that has stood without incident for 70 years as a memorial to fallen service members.”
The U.S. government also questioned whether Buono even had standing to challenge the cross as a resident of Oregon, and how he would suffer specific harm because of the cross.
The VFW set off panic alarms by suggesting that the ruling could eventually lead to problems displaying crosses in places like Arlington National Cemetery. That move certainly has brought more pressure forward.
"It is disheartening and distressing to think that Arlington Cemetery must be gutted because there are those who are offended by the religious imagery," the organizations wrote.
"And under the Ninth Circuit’s approach, no memorial may be preserved by conveying it to a veterans organization, probably the very organization that paid for the memorial in the first place."
In late February 2009, Kelly Shackelford, chief counsel of Liberty Legal Institute and attorney for the veterans groups, said, "It is bad enough to say that the veterans' memorial is unconstitutional, but it is outrageous to say that the government cannot give the monument back to the people who spilled their blood and put it there in the first place."
For now the cross remains covered. It seems that the shadow cast by this eight-foot tall simple monument will probably never go away completely.
It seems that we have progressed beyond the need to tie death and war and a particular religion together. The Vietnam Wall is certainly non denominational. Here in Salem, Oregon we have an extremely impressive tribute to casualties of the current wars overseas that memorialized the people rather a symbol of religion.
One memory that stands out in all of this was something I saw near the village of Romagne-sous-Montfaucon, France some years ago. I had been in the American war cemetery there, which is at the same time, breathtaking and appalling; a sight of magnificent white crosses that unfortunately stretch as far as the eye can see.
I left there with a friend and went to the German WWI cemetery which is closer to the village. Among the smaller, darker crosses with sort of a Gothic appearance, were Star of David graves. I couldn't believe my eyes, they looked so out of place. I knew the Germans had been mostly OK toward its Jewish population during the "Great War" of 1914-1918, but I didn't know that they were that progressive about it.
Well, as it turns out they weren't exactly. The Star of David graves were actually installed in the 1970's as it was explained to me, by Israeli citizens. Jean Paul said the people who did the work, wanted all Germans who come to visit this place to know that Christian and Jewish soldiers were fighting and dying side by side.
Today that debate is over. We know that people from all cultures and religions fight and die together on the same side and we take the time to recognize their individual beliefs if and when that time comes. But moreover, we memorialize the people rather than religious symbols in public displays, and that is something we have had to learn to do. In 1934 they saw things differently.
I have included some videos about the Mojave Desert Cross that explain more of the history:
Video
Here is another YouTube video about the Mojave Desert Cross:
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Tim King is a former U.S. Marine with twenty years of experience on the west coast as a television news producer, photojournalist, reporter and assignment editor. In addition to his role as a war correspondent, this Los Angeles native serves as Salem-News.com's Executive News Editor.Tim spent the winter of 2006/07 covering the war in Afghanistan, and he was in Iraq over the summer of 2008, reporting from the war while embedded with both the U.S. Army and the Marines. Tim holds numerous awards for reporting, photography, writing and editing, including the Oregon AP Award for Spot News Photographer of the Year (2004), the first place Electronic Media Award in Spot News, Las Vegas, (1998), Oregon AP Cooperation Award (1991); and several other awards including the 2005 Red Cross Good Neighborhood Award for reporting. Serving the community in very real terms, Salem-News.com is the nation's only truly independent high traffic news Website, affiliated with Google News and several other major search engines and news aggregators.You can send Tim an email at this address: newsroom@salem-news.com
Oregon Man Battles to Remove Historic Mojave Desert Cross Honoring War DeadSalem-News.com