SAN DIEGO — Alliance Defense Fund and Liberty Legal Institute attorneys filed a friend-of-the-court brief in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit Wednesday on behalf of The American Legion and The American Legion Department of California, asking the court to dismiss a 17-year legal attack on the Mt. Soledad National War Memorial cross.
“It’s ridiculous to continue this crusade against a memorial beloved by our nation’s veterans,” said ADF Litigation Counsel Tim Chandler. “For 17 years, this suit has tried to deny the families of those who’ve lost loved ones in battle the right to honor them as they wish. Now that Congress has passed and the President has signed a bill that clearly puts the cross under federal control, we hope that the 9th Circuit will see that it’s no longer necessary to continue the ACLU’s protracted legal attack on this symbol dedicated to our nation’s fallen heroes.”
In July, U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice Anthony Kennedy issued a stay that had been requested by ADF and its ally, Liberty Legal Institute, on behalf of The American Legion and The American Legion Department of California (
www.telladf.org/news/story.aspx?cid=3791).
Shortly thereafter, President Bush signed the law that officially transferred ownership of the memorial property to the federal government.
The cross has been in existence since 1952. In 2005, 76 percent of San Diegans voted to preserve the Mount Soledad cross by transferring the memorial from city property to the ownership of the National Park Service, but that move was contested in court.
“The people of San Diego have spoken, and not only do they see no problem with the cross, in fact, they strongly believe that it should remain,” said Chandler. “Hopefully, the court will declare the case to be moot, and this stage of the tired legal battle will be over.”
A copy of the friend-of-the-court brief filed in
Paulson v. City of San Diego on behalf of The American Legion and The American Legion Department of California can be read at
www.telladf.org/UserDocs/PaulsonAmicus.pdf. ADF attorneys also filed a friend-of-the-court brief on the merits of the case in July (
www.telladf.org/news/story.aspx?cid=3813).
ADF is a legal alliance defending the right to hear and speak the Truth through strategy, training, funding, and litigation.
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