Posted on 02/21/2019 3:52:51 PM PST by jazusamo
(Washington, DC) – Judicial Watch announced today that it filed an amicus curiae brief in the United States Supreme Court asking the court to reverse a decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, which ruled that government recognition and upkeep of a World War I memorial cross is in violation of the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment of the Constitution. ( The American Legion, et al. v. American Humanist Association, et al.; Maryland National Capital Park and Planning Commission v. American Humanist Association, et al. (Nos. 17-1717, 18-18)). The court will hear arguments on the case next week, on February 27, 2019.
The First Amendment provides: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” These two clauses comprise the “establishment clause” and the “free exercise clause.”
Judicial Watch argues that the Supreme Court in this case can “clarify the role of the Establishment Clause in relation to the States and set out an unambiguous legal standard by which Establishment Clause violations can be measured.” Additionally, Judicial Watch “seeks to highlight the dangerous path this case plays in overt hostility toward religion by the courts.”
Judicial Watch argues that, “applying any of the possible Establishment Clause tests brings about the same conclusion: the Memorial is constitutional.”
Judicial Watch points out that both the plain meaning of the language and the historical context of the Establishment Clause clearly demonstrate “that the Framers intended the Clause to be a restriction on federal interference with and establishment of religion…”
The brief details the use of the cross through American history to honor our nation’s war dead and notes that “the cross has become synonymous with veteran sacrifice.” Judicial Watch’s brief presents the Supreme Court with actual photos of such memorial crosses across the country.
“The time-honored cross monuments to America’s honored dead should especially be defended by courts, both because military sacrifice made possible the guarantee of our constitutional rights and because it is the duty of the courts to honor the Constitution as written by the Framers,” said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton. “This is an opportunity for the court to halt the defense of imagined offenses of manufactured rights and protect the free expression of religion against the predations of activist judges who seek to remove religion from the public square.”
Off the Wall Ping!
Contact to be added.
When they outlaw the cross only outlaws will bend and be on their knees holding onto a cross
I grew up near Peace Cross, have driven by it countless times, and never knew it’s history. Hate it when stuff like that happens. May the Godless leftists be defeated.
Bump!
Why do we even take these fringe groups like the humanist society seriously? Its absolutely disgusting that removing the cross is even a possibility.
Haven’t there been similar court cases of crosses on public land? And hasn’t the Supreme Court ruled that there is no constitutional violation? If so, then why aren’t such cases cited as precedent and this case thrown out of court? Why do we relitigate things that were decided?
After WWI ended Eastern Michigan University erected memorials in a section of the campus for the names of the students and faculty who gave their lives for our freedoms. It would stand forever to remember them and they would never be forgotten.
Until the university bosses wanted the land for putting in a new maintenance equipment building so they could demolish the old one to build a multimillion dollar student center there. Out the memorials and names and placques all went.
I said to a coworker: they should never uproot that memorial area that was promised to the families in a ceremony to honor their loved ones forever. She said: “How many WWI relatives are still alive? They won’t know.” So crass. Are we supposed to toss aside all the veterans’ sacrifices if they aren’t modern enough and PC now, too? Maybe honor the LGBT ones only? And the memory forever isn’t convenient any more.
Surround it with human shields when the bulldozers come.
Let’s wrap this Freepathon up, Folks!
The Bladensburg Peace Cross was built with private funds on private land. It was acquired years later when the state widened the roads and built a traffic circle. The cross now sits in the circle. I presume the deal at the time of acquisition was that the state could have the land on condition of maintaining the site. This would consist mainly of mowing the grass, which the state would be doing anyhow. If this degree of church-state entanglement is unbearably painful to the anti-religious bigots, the obvious solution is for the state to renounce the deal, give the land back. and return the highways to their original configuration. Or negotiate with the American Legion for a satisfactory relocation.
I grew up near Peace Cross, have driven by it countless times, and never knew it’s history. Hate it when stuff like that happens. May the Godless leftists be defeated.
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I also grew up near Peace Cross and have driven by it countless times. Had some good friends in Bladensburg, used to go to the skating rink there, the Cheverly Theater, and later on to the Crossroads nightclub, Burke Motleys, Jerry’s Hot Dog place, etc. I’ve seen Peace Cross flooded and guys paddling around it in rowboats.
Surround it with human shields when the bulldozers come.
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Ha ha. Reminds me of the Andy Griffith episode when Aunt Bee and her army of like-minded women did the human shield thing to stop the bulldozers from knocking down some old dude’s house to make way for a new highway. Hilarious!
When was that? I know Bladensburg used to have chronic flooding but I thought the levee had fixed that.
When was that? I know Bladensburg used to have chronic flooding but I thought the levee had fixed that.
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The levee did fix the problem. I’m talking before it was constructed, back in the early ‘50s. My brother was married in about 1952 and lived for a year or so at Hilltop Manor across from Bladensburg Junior High. I remember being stopped by the flooding on the way from Mt. Rainier to his apartment.
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