Free Republic

federal judge on Wednesday ordered the removal of the Mount Soledad cross from property owned by the city of San Diego within 90 days or he will fine the city $5,000 a day. “It is now time, and perhaps long overdue, for this court to enforce its initial permanent injunction forbidding the presence of the Mount Soledad cross on city property,” said U.S. District Judge Gordon Thompson. Thompson first found the presence of the cross on city property unconstitutional in 1991 because it violated the separation of church and state. Since then, his order, and the issue of the cross,...

Judge halts Mount Soledad cross transfer          By Jennifer Vigil and Karen Kucher UNION-TRIBUNE 12:41 p.m. September 2, 2005 JAMES BAIRD / Union-Tribune As votes were counted in the July 26 special election, the setting sun illuminated the cross on Mount Soledad. SAN DIEGO – A Superior Court judge on Friday issued a temporary restraining order barring the city from transferring the Mount Soledad cross to the federal government under the deal voters overwhelmingly approved in San Diego's July special election. Judge Patricia Yim Cowett issued a tentative 34-page ruling in the case, which questioned the constitutionality of Proposition...

8:10 p.m. March 8, 2005 SAN DIEGO – The San Diego City Council on Tuesday rejected a plan to transfer the property atop Mount Soledad, including its 43-foot-tall cross, to the federal government to be designated a national veterans memorial. The panel voted 5-3 not to transfer the property to the National Parks Service, a last-ditch effort proposed by two San Diego congressmen to stop the removal of the cross from Mount Soledad. Advertisement The cross was ordered moved after federal judges twice declared the sale of the city land to the Mount Soledad Memorial Association unconstitutional because it favored...