The Jan. 4 decision in Jewish War Veterans v. City of San Diego is being hailed by church-state separationists and decried by conservative Christian groups, who have called it “a judicial slap in the face” of veterans. The cross has, in recent years, been re-fashioned as a war memorial.
But a unanimous three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said that the Mount Soledad Cross’ presence on public land was a clear violation of the First Amendment’s ban on government establishment of religion.
The decision returns the case to a lower federal court to determine whether the memorial can be modified to pass constitutional muster. However, the 9th Circuit panel did not suggest any specific remedies.
