Posted on 06/22/2006 6:29:20 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
The city will petition the U.S. Supreme Court in a drive to exhaust every legal avenue before removing a giant concrete cross from public property on Aug. 1, the city attorney said Thursday.
The city will ask the high court to review Wednesday's decision by a 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals panel to turn down the city's request to stay a federal court decision against the cross.
U.S. District Court Judge Gordon Thompson Jr. found in May that the city was demonstrating an unconstitutional endorsement of one religion over others by maintaining the 29-foot cross in a municipal hilltop park. He ordered the city to pay $5,000 daily fines beginning Aug. 2 if the cross is not taken down.
Mayor Jerry Sanders, who directed City Attorney Michael Aguirre to file the petition to the Supreme Court, has said that if no legal relief is granted he will abide by Thompson's ruling in order to prevent the cash-strapped city from incurring fines.
Aguirre said that Thompson's order "essentially foreclosed" any alternative to physically moving the cross, such as covering it with a tarp.
Supporters of the cross had suggested ideas including building a wall around the monument to buy time for appeals pending in state and federal courts that might lead to a ruling allowing the cross to remain.
The cross has stood atop Mount Soledad in La Jolla for 52 years. Legal battles have been under way for 17 years.
The Supreme Court declined to hear the cross case once before, in 2003.
Don't worry. In Cuba, in Santa Clara they erected in 1957 a statue of Our Lady of the Road (transliteration) at the entrance to the city. Castro ordered it destroyed. It was found 40 years later, after it had come up from the ground were it was buried, and once again stands in the city. Its a shame that this situation is analagous though.
They tried selling it. Court said they could not.
To think that the spilled blood of war veterans was shed to give us freedoms and that a few twisted reprobate minds would remove that symbol like a Nazi or Communist. Puke on them who do this.
The USSR repressed Poland from building churches yet the most solid faith in Europe today resides in Poland.
God will never be removed from His people by evil men.
Lets join and fight these evil intentions foisted on us by wicked forces.
They think the second part says something about freedom FROM religion. Congress has made no law establishing a religion by the city having this cross on the hill. No judge worth the powder to blow them to hell would ever rule otherwise. We have had several rulings around the country that uphold the right of government entities to have religious symbols displayed but the ACLU and other commies continue to use this same tired old argument.
Hopefully SCOTUS will uphold their right to display this cross.
SDO is the reason. Thomas, Rehnquist, Scalia, and maybe Kennedy would have been the only justices on the right side of the case. They would not have chosen to get involved knowing full well where the other 5 goons stood on the issue.
Not surprisingly, Kennedy has taken a nuanced position on these matters. He is way more open to religious displays than the liberals on the court. But he won't go as far as the conservatives. How he will come out on this one is really a coin flip. If I had to guess I would say he will come out on the right side. I am sure that Roberts and Alito will be rock solid on this issue.
Only four affirmative votes are necessary to take a case.
If I was president,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
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