So the ACLU doesn't want any crosses on Federal land ??
Arlington National
Posted on 09/14/2003 10:58:03 AM PDT by RobertJames
Tuesday, July 1, 2003
By KELLY DONOVAN/Staff Writer
The American Legion of California will seek support for the Mojave Cross from its counterparts across the country, Legion officials said Monday.
Willy Wilkin, who represents California on the American Legion's executive committee, said he will urge his colleagues to pass a resolution in favor of U.S. Rep. Jerry Lewis' efforts to save the cross.
The executive committee, which has one member from each state, will meet in August in St. Louis.
Wilkin said the Mojave Cross, bolted on top of a rock outcropping in the Mojave National Preserve, is important to the California veterans in his group.
"Opponents call it a cross," he said. "But it really is a memorial to World War I veterans."
Although supporters contend the cross is not a religious symbol, a federal judge ruled it unconstitutional in July 2002, saying it violates the establishment clause of the First Amendment because it is on federal land.
The judge's ruling was in favor of the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California, which had sued the federal government over the cross. The case is now on appeal in the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.
Meanwhile, Lewis has been trying to introduce legislation that would save the cross through a land swap deal. The ACLU and a coalition of other groups emerged this spring to voice opposition to the land swap.
Rees Lloyd, commander of the San Gorgonio Pass post of the American Legion, drafted a resolution in favor of the land swap and had it passed by his post, then the American Legion's regional district and finally the statewide group.
The American Legion of California approved the resolution at its conference in Riverside about a week ago.
Lloyd said he decided to write the resolution because he supports the cross and was upset when he heard about the ACLU fighting Lewis' proposal.
"Why are they fighting it?" said Lloyd, a civil rights attorney who worked for the ACLU years ago, but is outraged with the group's stance on crosses.
The ACLU attorney who won the Mojave Cross case has said he is opposed to the land swap because he wants the constitutional matter to be resolved by the courts, not Congress.
Five groups, including the ACLU of Southern California, sent a letter opposing the land swap about two months ago to California's Congressional delegation.
The cross is one of a handful of replacements of a cross a veterans group erected on Sunrise Rock in 1934 as a veterans memorial.
So the ACLU doesn't want any crosses on Federal land ??
Arlington National
Ypres WW1 Memorial
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