Appeals Court Agrees: Tear Down That CrossPosted: June 23, 2006
A three-judge panel of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals has refused to stay a federal judge's order to remove the Mount Soledad Cross, which for decades has commemorated fallen American soldiers buried there.
As WorldNetDaily reported, U.S. District Judge Gordon Thompson ordered the city of San Diego to remove the 43-foot structure by Aug. 1 or face a fine of $5,000 a day. Thompson ruled the cross unconstitutional in 1991, but the case has remained in courts and become an issue of public policy.
The dispute was started by an atheist charging the cross – the centerpiece of a national war-veterans memorial – violates the so-called "separation of church and state."
In its decision, however, the 9th Circuit scheduled oral arguments on the matter for the week of Oct. 16, weeks after the Cross is to be removed, noted the Thomas More Law Center, a national public-interest law firm that has battled to save the cross since 2004
FULL STORY at
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=50761