Administrative/Regulatory
Jul. 27, 2002
Mojave Cross Must Come Down, Judge Orders
LOS ANGELES - The cross must come down. A Los Angeles federal judge has ruled that the Mojave Desert Cross, a 5-foot-tall white cross erected by World War I veterans on federal land in the Mojave Desert in 1934, violates the Establishment Clause.
A Los Angeles federal judge has ruled that the Mojave Desert Cross, a 5-foot-tall white cross erected by World War I veterans on federal land in the Mojave Desert in 1934, violates the Establishment Clause.
"It has always amazed me in a country that constitutionally separates church and state, where religions of all types are free to flourish, why the government needs to play a role in reinforcing the point of view of religious people," said Peter Eliasberg, staff attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union Foundation of Southern California.
Until this week, an act of Congress had preserved the Christian symbol as a national memorial.
The Mojave Cross sits in an area known as Sunrise Rock at the Mojave National Preserve, which encompasses 1.6 million acres between Barstow and Las Vegas.
"The display of this cross on federal land is in violation of the Constitution, and no amount of maneuvering or grandstanding on the part of Congress will change that," Eliasberg said.
U.S. District Judge Robert Timlin agreed, granting the ACLU's motion for summary judgment Tuesday.
Applying the three-pronged test set out by the U.S. Supreme Court in Lemon v. Kurtzman, 403 U.S. 602(1971), Timlin ruled that the cross has no secular purpose, has the primary effect of advancing religion and conveys "a message of [the government's] endorsement of religion." Buono v. Norton, 01-216 (C.D. Cal., July 23, 2002).
Sources said that the National Park Service had been prepared to take down the cross when the ACLU had demanded its removal in 1999.
But U.S. Rep. Jerry Lewis, R-Redlands, attached a rider to a federal appropriations bill in December 2000, preventing the use of federal funds to remove the cross.
Lewis later introduced a separate appropriations bill that successfully designated the cross as a national memorial, according to a federal lawsuit filed by the ACLU in March 2001.
As plaintiffs in the ACLU lawsuit, Frank Buono, a former park service employee, and Allen Schwartz, a Jewish veteran of the Korean War and World War II, charged that the cross had diminished their use and enjoyment of Mojave National Preserve. The preserve had become a gathering place for veterans to honor dead soldiers.
"It would be one thing if the government allowed other denominations to erect symbols of their religions," Eliasberg said. "But when some practicing Buddhists asked to put up a Buddhist symbol, the park service said no."
The National Park Service did not return calls for comment.
Dana Perino, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Department of Justice, which defended the lawsuit, said, "We're reviewing the ruling and considering our options."
Jeffrey Anderson
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