In major religion case, U.S. top court sympathetic toward Maryland cross
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Supreme Court justices on Wednesday signaled a willingness to rule that a 40-foot-tall (12 meters) cross-shaped war memorial on public land in Maryland is not a unconstitutional government endorsement of religion.
But during a lively 70-minute oral argument, the justices appeared unlikely to issue a sweeping ruling that would allow greater government involvement in religious expression.
Justice Stephen Breyer, one of the court’s four liberals, suggested a compromise ruling that would allow the cross to remain based in part on the fact it was built in 1925.
“It’s about saying past is past ... but now, no more,” Breyer said.
The so-called Peace Cross, a concrete memorial to 49 men from Maryland’s Prince George’s County killed in World War One shaped like a Christian cross, is situated on public land at a busy road intersection in Bladensburg just outside Washington.
Fred Edwords and two other plaintiffs filed a 2014 lawsuit challenging the cross as a violation of the U.S. Constitution’s Establishment Clause, which prohibits the government from establishing an official religion and bars governmental actions favoring one religion over another.
Edwords, who is retired, is a long-time member and previous employee of the American Humanist Association, which advocates for the separation of church and state.
The cross was funded privately. The property where it stands was in private hands when it was erected, but it is now on land owned by the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission, a governmental agency.
The high court has a 5-4 conservative majority. A ruling is due by the end of June.
Supporters of the group participated in a small rally in front of the court before the arguments, with some holding signs saying, “Protect the Constitution they fought for,” in reference to military veterans. Supporters of the cross, including members of the American Legion, a private veterans’ group, also gathered outside the building.
The cross has the backing of President Donald Trump’s administration and members of the American Legion, who hold memorial events at the site. Veterans and their relatives have said the monument has no religious meaning despite being in the shape of a cross, calling the lawsuit misguided and hurtful.
Aside from its shape, the cross has no other religious themes or imagery.
The Richmond-based 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the cross was unconstitutional, reversing a Maryland-based federal judge’s decision allowing the monument.
The Supreme Court will hear appeals by the park commission and the American Legion, which is represented by the conservative religious rights group First Liberty Institute.
The Supreme Court has sent mixed messages about parameters for government-approved religious expression, including in two rulings issued on the same day in 2005.
In one, it ruled that a monument on the grounds of the Texas state capitol building depicting the biblical Ten Commandments did not violate the Constitution. But in the other, it decided that Ten Commandments displays in Kentucky courthouses and schools were unlawful.
Reporting by Lawrence Hurley; Additional reporting by Andrew Chung; Editing by Will Dunham
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