c. 2006 Religion News Service

WASHINGTON _ As the battle over the legality of a publicly displayed cross continues to intensify, a prominent veterans group has suggested that if the San Diego monument is removed, memorials in military cemeteries could be next.

“Disallowing crosses and other religious imagery and references at veterans memorials would lead to wide-scale sandblasting of these and countless other memorials across the country,” predicted the American Legion in an amicus brief filed June 30 with the U.S. Supreme Court.

That argument _ which has been dismissed by a church-state separationist group as far-fetched _ came days before Justice Anthony M. Kennedy issued an extended stay in the case regarding San Diego’s Mount Soledad cross. Kennedy’s July 7 action suspended a lower court decision that would have forced the city to remove the cross from public land or risk a $5,000-per-day fine.

Kennedy’s decision did not cite the veterans’ concerns, but a lawyer representing the American Legion hopes lower courts will now consider the effect the case could have on other memorials.

“That’s our fear, that Arlington National Cemetery is next, and all the other national war memorials are going to be a target of the atheists and the ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union),” said Jonathan Saenz, a litigation attorney with the Liberty Legal Institute, a Plano, Texas-based legal organization.

“If we’re not allowed to properly commemorate or show our appreciation for the memories of our soldiers just because (a memorial) has some type of religious symbol, that’s an obvious example of religious discrimination and intolerance.”

Rob Boston, assistant director of communications for Americans United for Separation of Church and State, wrote on his organization’s Weblog that the suggestions that crosses on gravestones will be the next target are “wild claims.”

“This is merely a scare tactic,” he wrote. “Crosses and other religious symbols at cemeteries, whether government-run or privately owned, are freely chosen by the families of fallen military personnel.”

The Mount Soledad case has lasted for more than 15 years after a lawsuit was filed in a California court stating that the cross’s placement violated the separation of church and state.

This past May, a federal judge ruled that the city had to remove the 29-foot cross from public grounds by Aug. 1 or face a fine, part of a long line of court decisions since atheist Philip Paulson contested the monument in 1989, saying it was unconstitutional to display the Christian cross in such a venue.

Since that time, and after Kennedy’s stay, groups have continued to debate the cross, which was erected in 1954 as a memorial for veterans of the Korean War.

“If we want to have an appropriate memorial that salutes those who have served their country and paid the ultimate price, it should be a secular monument that honors all veterans and the ideals they fought to defend,” said Ellen Johnson, the president of American Atheists.

Other groups, including the American Center for Law and Justice and the Alliance Defense Fund say that a decision to tear the cross down could affect war memorials across the country.

The American Legion, which has filed briefs with both the Supreme Court and a California appeals court, worries about cemeteries here and abroad.

“We are particularly concerned in this case that a dangerous precedent could be set that would endanger veterans’ memorials across America, perhaps even the 9,000 crosses that mark the final resting places of our World War II heroes at Normandy Beach,” said Thomas L. Bock, national commander for the American Legion.

Members of Congress, including Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., have recently sponsored legislation that would call for the federal government to take possession of the land, thereby designating it as national veterans memorial.

In a 2005 public referendum regarding the ownership of the cross, 76 percent of those who voted were in favor of transferring it to the federal government.

These developments in the case were cited as factors in Kennedy’s stay.

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