Posted on 08/14/2006 1:38:12 PM PDT by TheDon
Woohoo! Score one for the good guys!
YEAH!!!!!! Thanks to hard work by Roger Hedgcock and a ton of other people!!
WASHINGTON — The Senate approved without opposition Aug. 1 a bill intended to protect San Diego’s Mount Soledad cross as a memorial to military veterans.
Senators agreed by unanimous consent to grant to the federal government ownership of the Mount Soledad Veterans Memorial, a 29-foot cross that stands atop an 800-foot mountain and has been a target of church-state separationists. The House of Representatives voted 349-74 for the same measure July 19.
President Bush is expected to sign it into law on 14 Aug 2006.
The legislation would sign over ownership of the property to the federal government to preserve it as a national military war memorial, which would be administered by the Department of Defense. The federal government would be required to pay an appropriate amount for the property and would be barred from extending its boundaries.
The Senate action marked another in a series of recent wins for those seeking to prevent a court from removing the cross, which was erected in 1954 as a tribute to veterans of the Korean War.
Supreme Court Associate Justice Anthony Kennedy blocked enforcement of a federal judge’s order for San Diego to remove the cross by Aug. 1 or pay $5,000 a day in fines. Kennedy's July 7 decision prevented fines until the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals or the Supreme Court rules on the case. The Ninth Circuit will hear the case in mid-October.
Congress passed in 2004 a bill designating the cross as a national memorial in honor of veterans and authorizing federal ownership of it if San Diego donated it. In 2005, San Diego voters approved with a 76 percent majority an initiative authorizing the city to give the memorial to the federal government. A state judge, however, ruled the measure was unconstitutional.
Rep. Duncan Hunter, R.-Calif., sponsored the House bill approved by the Senate. California Sens. Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein, both Democrats, urged their colleagues to approve Hunter’s measure.
The Mt Soledad Memorial Association will continue to operate and maintain the site and design the plaques under current criteria.
http://www.soledadmemorial.com/news.html
I guess he will take it to the world court.
Rick Roberts, too (to be included in the ton of other people)!
Amen!!
This transfers the cross to federal property? What happened to the suggestion that the property be sold to a private organization?
Great news. Now can we get Congress to act equally quick on equally important legislation pending??
There was some sort of restriction for the city to sell the land; perhaps now that it's federal, a sale to a private party can be done.
The court held that selling the property to a private party was an unconstitutional attempt to bypass the issue and invalidated the sale.
See, the issue isn't to keep the government from supporting religion. The issue is to get that cross down.
Which says all you need to know.
The judiciary hates it when the legislative and executive act to provide some "checks and balances" on its abuse of power.
Hire some Islamist to blow it up.
take that ACLU!
Congressman Duncan Hunter and other local officials will be on hand for the President's signing of the bill to transfer the cross to the federal government.
President Bush is scheduled to sign the bill into law transferring the Mt. Soledad Cross and property on which is sets to the federal government.
Suck on that ACLU!!!!
FTACLU!!
************
Imagine having that be your life's work.
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