Posted on 08/18/2010 2:57:04 PM PDT by markomalley
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) -- A federal appeals court says the 14 crosses erected along state highways to commemorate fallen Utah Highway Patrol troopers are a violation of the U.S. Constitution.
The 10th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Wednesday that the memorials had the effect of conveying a state endorsement or preference of a certain religion.
The ruling reverses a 2007 judge's decision that the crosses communicate a secular message about deaths and were not an illegal public endorsement of religion.
(snip)
The 12-foot high white crosses were paid for with private funds.
(Excerpt) Read more at hosted.ap.org ...
The state religion in Utah is not known for a fondness of the Christian cross...
The crosses will be replaced by islamic crescents, which are constitutionally protected symbols.
Anti religious bigots on parade
An easy solution is to back the crosses a few feet onto private property. It will be just a matter of time before the judges find this offensive, then it is all out war.
People tend to use inexpensive materials like PVC pipe, so they can simply replace the memorials again and again. A few go the opposite way - making the crosses out of rebar and welded diamond-plate so that they're too heavy to be moved. I saw one like that not long ago, with the name of the deceased and "Rest In Peace" written in weld bead. Pretty impressive, actually.
thugs in black robes
The progressives have used their trained monkeys in the courts to strip the majority of their rights,attack their religious rights,say that we must cater to every whim of the minority no matter how stupid or how it affects the majority,and use the courts to prevent the majority redress of grievance.and call us ignorant racists when we complain.
its the reason I am such a reactionary now
This is a Federal Appeals court ruling, not the state of Utah or Mormons. Why don't you research the religious affiliation of whoever made this ruling.
I don't know the religious makeup of the troopers that were killed, but I'd be willing to bet that at least one of them was Mormon. I don't recall any of the families or their church complaining about a cross being set up in their honor. Perhaps you can correct me if I'm wrong there.
Silly Christians... tell the government next time they are putting up mini-minarets. These should be perfectly fine.
It was a FEDERAL court, not a STATE court. Your predictable smear is irrelevant.
Idiocy..
Well Officers have to patrol those routes anyway.. When the Crosses come down put them back up. Let’s just see who get’s tired first..
W
This is what happens when a nation puts its faith in law.
Anyone see a double standard here??
But, it’s okay the liberals and liberal appointees to take the Christian rights away a little everyday and give the rights to the Muslims to put up yet another mosque (among 11 in a 5 sq. mile area), but won’t give permission for the Jews to re-build a Synagogue that was destroyed in 911 WTC bombing!
Christians and vets have been ordered to remove crosses from graves and those erected as monuments to vets, destroyed by vandals and now not allowed to be replaced. But, it’s okay for the liberals to fight for this mosque, which will be an offense to a majority of Americans. This should be a states right anyway to memorialize their State Highway Patrol Officers, killed while on duty!!
Come on State Sovereignty .....KICK IN!!! Keep the FEDS out of states business!!
Yes, of course there’s a double standard. And there ought to be a double standard every time there’s a shortcoming in the laws we write - a double standard which ought to serve the good, not the evil.
Trouble is, the good people get hit twice for every shortcoming in our laws - once when evil people take advantage of the shortcoming to do evil, and again when good people refuse to admit the shortcoming and change the law.
Just listen to many conservatives here on Free Republic. We talk as though the Constitution were written by the finger of God, that it’s flawless, that it will save us in spite of what sort of people get hold of it. We talk in glowing terms about “the rule of law” as we pile law upon law in an attempt to restrain one another from doing evil - and then complain about having too many laws!
The best argument I’ve heard against the Ground Zero Victory Mosque came from (of all people!) a Muslim who fled to America to escape persecution in Syria. He said something to this effect: “Just because they have the right to build it doesn’t make it right to build it.”
We cling to our rights and then feel free to ignore what’s right. That’s the trap to which republics are susceptible. Instead of bowing before the king, we bow before the law, and it becomes our dictator, our tyrant, our slavemaster. And whoever has the ear of our monarch will use that power for his own purposes, whether for good or evil. And we will submit, powerless.
Our rulers don’t like our religion, do they?
I think it’s time to overthrow our rulers.
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