Court battles over religiously themed displays on public grounds are nothing new in the United States. It has become common for civic groups to challenge town displays of mangers or menorahs around the winter holiday seasons. Now the ongoing dispute over the separation of church and state has spilled over into war memorials. A suit initiated eight years ago by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) on behalf of Frank Buono, a former National Park Services employee, is attempting to have the Mojave Desert Cross removed.
Mojave Cross Origins
125 miles northeast of Los Angeles in the middle of a desolate stretch of the Mojave National Preserve, the 8-foot-tall white, metal cross sits atop a rocky outcrop. It was first erected in 1934 to honor soldiers killed in WWI, and for 50 years was the responsibility of John Riley Bembrey, a World War I Army medic.
Since 1935, people gathered intermittently at the site for Easter services, which became a routine occurrence in 1984. Since 1984 the cross had been taken care of and maintained by various volunteers until 2002 when it was boarded up after lower court rulings declared it violated the separation of church and state laws.
Separation of Church and State
According to the ACLU, those religious gatherings transformed the war memorial into a religious shrine and thereby disqualified it from the National Register of Historic Places. As of October 2009 the debate is about whether the cross sits on federal land or not.
The Liberty Legal Institute, a law firm founded in 1997 to protect religious freedoms and First Amendment rights, has teamed up with The American Legion, Veterans of Foreign Wars and other veterans service organizations to defend the Mojave Cross from removal.
Decade of Court Battles Over Cross
Sunrise Rock, the site on which the cross stands, became federal land in 1994 as part of the Mojave Land Preserve. This 1.6 million acre space is maintained by the National Parks Service. After the initial complaint was filed by the ACLU in 1999, the National Parks Service seemed to have acquiesced and stated that they would be removing the cross.
Then in December of 2000 California Representative Jerry Lewis added a rider to a house appropriations bill banning the removal. of the cross From 2000 to 2009 the ACLU and Rep. Lewis waged something of a stalemate war over the fate of the Mojave Cross.
Then in February of 2009 the case, now recognized as Salazar vs. Buono, was set to be heard by the U.S. Supreme Court. The cross remains covered by a cardboard box, with arguments set for October of 2009.
Sources
http://www.legion.org/magazine/2873/monumental-challenge
http://www.christianpost.com/article/20091005/high-court-to-hear-arguments-on-mojave-cross/index.html
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