Free Republic

LA JOLLA — Two San Diego County congressmen wrote a letter Thursday urging the Obama administration to “vigorously defend” the Mount Soledad war memorial in La Jolla in the wake of a court ruling that said the giant cross there is unconstitutional. The letter was signed by Republican Reps. Brian Bilbray of Solana Beach and Duncan Hunter of R-Alpine. It was sent to Attorney General Eric Holder and Secretary of Defense Robert Gates. On Tuesday, a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals issued the latest ruling in the 20-year battle over the presence of the Latin...

From the 9th Circuit: Opinion1. The appeal by the City of the district court's May 3, 2006 order (the one that said the city must rip down the cross by Aug. 1, 2006 or face a $5,000/day fine) to enforce a December 3, 1991 injunction under California constitutional authority is dismissed as moot. 2. The appeal of the district court's denial of intervention, filed by the San Diegans for the Mt. Soledad National War Memorial, is also dismissed as moot. 3....

Philip Kevin Paulson, who fought a 17-year legal battle to remove the Mount Soledad cross from public property, died Wednesday of liver cancer. He was 59. Paulson, a 6-foot-5 Vietnam veteran who lived in City Heights, became so passionate about the separation of church and state that he filed a civil lawsuit against the city of San Diego in 1989 without an attorney. He won the case, and as the appeals dragged on he became one of the county's most reviled and respected characters. The CrossTypical Memorial Plaque around base During interviews with The San Diego Union-Tribune in September and...