Tag Archives: Topic: Monuments

The Hill: House Republicans are trying once again to enact a law that would prevent Congress from naming monuments, buildings or other structures after themselves.
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NC Register: In an opinion released at the end of March, the court rightly dismissed the atheists’ case and indeed made short work of their arguments. The court found that the cross and its presence at the memorial did not “endorse” religion and its presence at the memorial in no way violated the First Amendment.

Christian News Network: A Pennsylvania group is standing its ground against atheist demands to remove a Ten Commandments at a local junior high school.

Tennessean: Sheriff Robert Arnold decided to hang the Ten Commandments in the jail lobby despite a court order banning the Rutherford County Commission from doing the same at the County Courthouse.

Press Enterprise: Last summer, Americans United for Separation of Church and State wrote to the city asserting that the Mount Rubidoux cross violates the First Amendment. With much of the case law going against religious displays on public land, the City Council voted to auction the top of the mountain where the cross sits. The sale was last week.

Washington Times: Rep. Duncan Hunter of California and Sen. Richard Burr of North Carolina on Thursday introduced the “War Memorial Protection Act,” which they say will create a “foundation in federal law” for public veterans’ and war memorials that include crosses or similar items. | Duncan Hunter press release: Senator Burr joins Hunter to introduce War Memorial Protection Act

Charles Hanes at Washington Post: On March 28, a group of atheists in New York lost round one in their legal battle to keep the “Ground Zero Cross” out of the National September 11 Museum in lower Manhattan.

Rees Lloyd at News with Views: For the first time in some twelve years, Americans will be able to exercise their First Amendment Free Exercise of Religion rights by attending Easter Sunrise Services at the Mojave Desert Veterans Memorial – with the Cross established there by veterans to honor veterans once again intact . . . “We want to thank all those who fought so hard to save the cross. The VFW. The American Legion. Liberty Institute. Alliance Defending Freedom. Thomas More Law Center. The California Legionnaires of the Defense of Veterans Memorials Project. And so many more,” said Mrs. Sandoz. “We are very, very grateful to them.”

KCBY.com (includes video): A separation of church and state watchdog group wants the City of Coos Bay to remove the memorial from Mingus Park because they say it’s unconstitutional. The Freedom From Religion Foundation sent Coos Bay City Manager Rodger Craddock a letter . . .

Religion Clause Blog: In Freedom From Religion Foundation, Inc. v. Connellsville Area School District, (WD PA, March 7, 2013), a Pennsylvania federal district court refused to dismiss an Establishment Clause challenge to a 6-foot tall stone monument containing the Ten Commandments located near the auditorium entrance to a junior high school.

The Stokes News: Alliance Defending Freedom has agreed to provide counsel at no charge to the city. The Alliance Defending Freedom, “a civil liberties education and legal defense organization that provides legal representation,” will face off against Americans United for Separation of Church and State, a religious liberty watchdog group based in Washington, D.C. Both groups have handled cases garnering national attention.

Robert Knight at Townhall: The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has lost its six-year campaign to tear down a Ten Commandments monument at the Dixie County, Florida courthouse. They’ve even lost their usual extortion money for harassing a community.

Liberty Counsel: After nearly six years of effort, culminating in a yearlong battle with Charlotte County’s zoning board, Lutheran Church of the Cross will now be able to build a 60-foot monument cross on its 11-acre property.

Religion Clause Blog: In 2006, Dixie County, Florida commissioners approved a request by citizens to permit them to place a 5-foot tall, 6-ton granite Ten Commandments monument at the county courthouse. The ACLU filed a lawsuit challenging the monument on behalf of an ACLU member, identified only as John Doe, who did not live in Dixie County, but said he was looking to purchase property there on which he and his wife could park their recreational vehicle.

Christian News: A lawmaker in Kansas has introduced a bill that seeks to protect the display of religious symbols in the state following threats from a prominent atheist organization that it would sue officials in one Kansas city if they did not remove a cross from their welcome sign.

Kansas City Star: The Kansas House is considering a bill that would allow the display of religious symbols on public lands, if the symbols are considered part of a community’s history or heritage.

Religion Clause Blog: On Tuesday, the U.S. Supreme Court denied certiorari in Sherman v. Illinois, (Docket No. 12-621, cert. denied 1/22/2013).

Religion Clause Blog: In Freedom From Religion Foundation, Inc. v. New Kensington-Arnold School District, 2013 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 8269 (WD PA, Jan. 22, 2013), a Pennsylvania federal district court denied defendants’ motion to dismiss a challenge to the constitutionality of a 6-foot tall 10 Commandments monument that has stood for decades at the entrance to Valley High School.

TribLive.com: Thou Shalt Not Move is continuing to keep the fight to keep the Ten Commandments monument at its current location at Connellsville Junior High School in the public eye.

The Stokes News: Alliance Defending Freedom will come to the city’s aid in the case of Steven Hewett vs. City of King. The Alliance has agreed to provide counsel at no charge to the city. The King City Council unanimously approved the appointment of the ADF during a meeting Monday night. [more]

Rory Gray at Alliance Defending Freedom Blog: Last year, memorial crosses along Interstate 15 dedicated to fallen Utah Highway Patrol troopers were taken down after the Supreme Court denied review in the Utah Highway Patrol Association v. American Atheists case. The crosses were privately designed, financed, erected, and maintained by the Utah Highway Patrol to honor troopers who gave their lives in the line of duty, remind the public of troopers’ sacrifice, and prompt motorists to drive more safely.

Deseret News: New crosses honoring 15 fallen Utah Highway Patrol troopers now overlook I-15 just north of exit 273, taking the place of memorials that were removed from public land following a U.S. Supreme Court decision last year.

Religion Clause Blog: On Nov. 30, the trial court judge ruled (full text of Order) that the students and the parent of one may proceed in the case identified only as Doe 1, Doe 2 and Doe 3.

Pittsburgh Tribune: A lawsuit seeking to force a Fayette County school district to remove a Ten Commandments monument from school grounds should be dismissed because the monument is more secular than religious, and its outdoor location means students aren’t forced to read it, according to school district attorneys.

LifeSiteNews: Vandals in Toronto attacked and damaged the nativity scene placed in front of Toronto’s Old City Hall courthouse by Gethsemane Ministries, a Catholic lay movement.

Religion Clause Blog: In Freedom From Religion Foundation, Inc. v. Weber, (D MT, Nov. 27, 2012), a Montana federal district court held that an advocacy organization has standing to bring an Establishment Clause challenge to the decision by the U.S. Forest Service to allow the continued presence of a statue of Jesus on National Forest Service land within Whitefish Mountain Resort.

KWCH: Some people want to see Buhler’s city seal change and the mayor says, it’s a battle that’s just too expensive to fight.

Trib Live: New Kensington-Arnold School District has asked a federal court judge to dismiss the legal challenge against the Ten Commandments monument displayed at Valley High School.

William Becker, Jr. at American Thinker: When Tuesday (11/19/2012), United States District Court Judge Audrey B Collins delivered a 28-page ruling denying my client the right to continue a 59-year-old tradition of exhibiting Nativity scenes along Ocean Boulevard in the City of Santa Monica this Christmas season, another dagger plunged into the heart of America’s twilight customs and traditions. The sneered-at “war on Christmas” was effectively lost for good.

OakLawnPatch: Alsip Mayor Patrick Kitching told Patch on Monday that the Freedom from Religion Foundation’s asked the village remove a cross, which has been stored on top of the West 119th Street water tower year round and lighted every holiday season for almost 40 years.

LA Times: In a closely watched case that has attracted national attention, Judge Audrey B. Collins denied a request from the Santa Monica Nativity Scenes Committee to erect multiple large displays depicting the story of the birth of Jesus in the park overlooking the ocean. The coalition of churches has erected the displays every December since the 1950s. But last year, after requests for display spots exceeded the space allotted, the city held a lottery to allocate spaces. Atheists won 18 of 21 spots. A Jewish group won another.

Tulsa World: A Ten Commandments monument was installed Thursday on the north grounds of the state Capitol

KTUL.com: Some civil rights groups say legal action is possible over a Ten Commandments monument installed Thursday on the Oklahoma state Capitol grounds.

CBN (includes video): An iconic cross on a mountain in California has come under fire. The religious symbol has stood on Mount Rubidoux in Riverside for more than 100 years. Now the Freedom From Religion Foundation wants the cross removed and is threatening to sue the city if it doesn’t take it down.

The Press-Enterprise: During the ceremony, Hiram Sasser, director of litigation for the Texas-based Liberty Institute, which focuses on religious-freedom cases and was involved in the Mojave cross case, talked of the indignities that crosses on the site have been through. “This memorial has been bagged, it’s been torn down and it’s been stolen,” he said. “And now it’s back, it’s up and you’re standing on VFW property,” Sasser said to loud cheers and clapping. “It’s fantastic.”

Boston Globe: Authorities say a controversial cross honoring war dead that was stolen from its Mojave Desert perch two years ago has turned up hundreds of miles away in the San Francisco Bay area.

Montgomery Advertiser: Earlier this year, almost no one would have expected the race for chief justice of the Alabama Supreme Court to be between Roy Moore, a man who was removed from that position almost a decade ago, and Robert Vance Jr., the well-funded son of a federal judge who was assassinated.

Americans United for Separation of Church and State: In a lawsuit filed on behalf of Steven Hewett, a decorated veteran of the war in Afghanistan, Americans United asked the city to remove the Christian flag as well as a Christian statue at the memorial.

TribLive.com: A Connellsville group fighting to keep a Ten Commandments monument at Connellsville Junior High School is continuing its efforts to keep the momentum of public support going.

PR Newswire on Sacramento Bee: Today, the United States District Court Judge for the Southern District of California granted intervention to the Mt. Soledad Veterans Memorial Association (the “Association”) allowing the Association to continue as a party in the landmark case, Steve Trunk, et al v. City of San Diego, et al. It overrules the ACLU’s attempt to have the Association excluded from the case.

FreedomXLaw.com (Becker Law Firm): On Tuesday, October, 9, 2012, The Becker Law Firm filed a lawsuit in the United States District Court in Los Angeles on behalf of the Santa Monica Nativity Scenes Committee. For several decades, the Committee has been responsible for exhibiting a 14-booth tableaux of Nativity scenes in Palisades Park, located in Santa Monica, CA

Thomas More Law Center: The City of Frankenmuth, Michigan formally rejected a demand by Americans United for Separation of Church and State (AU) to remove a 55 foot steel American Bicentennial Cross on city-owned land. In a July letter, AU claimed the Cross on public land unlawfully endorses and promotes Christianity, and asked Frankenmuth to remove the cross or face “a significant risk of litigation.”

WPRI.com: Despite the recent controversy surrounding the Veteran’s Memorial Cross outside of the Woonsocket Fire Station, the piece was re-dedicated in a small ceremony earlier today

Herald Standard: The Freedom From Religion Foundation and unidentified plaintiffs have sued Connellsville Area School District over a monument of the Ten Commandments placed outside of the junior high school. | FFRF press release and complaint

Religion Clause Blog: AP reported yesterday that the National Park Service has decided to remove a stupa (Buddhist reliquary) that has been on the grounds of Petroglyph National Monument in New Mexico since 1990.

Ross Astoria. 2011. “Why Do Citizens Litigate Over the Posting of the Ten Commandments? A Case Study from Tennessee”
Available at: http://works.bepress.com/ross_astoria/2

Chicago Tribune (AP): A Chicago-area atheist is using his last legal recourse in challenging the use of state funds to renovate a towering southern Illinois cross, but he acknowledges the odds are “pretty slim” that the U.S. Supreme Court will agree to hear the case.

Berg, Thomas C., Can State-Sponsored Religious Symbols Promote Religious Liberty? (August 25, 2012). Journal of Catholic Legal Studies, 2013; U of St. Thomas Legal Studies Research Paper No. 12-25. Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=2144460

Gazette.net: A complaint filed by an atheist group asking for the removal of Bladensburg’s Peace Cross — a longtime community fixture dedicated to Prince George’s County veterans — has stoked debate and opposition from officials and residents across the county.

WPXI.com: Board members said it will stay put, and they are looking at all of their options to determine how to move forward . . .

Freedom from Religion Foundation: FFRF has hired counsel and has parent plaintiffs in both school districts. Marcus B. Schneider of Pittsburgh wrote both districts on Aug. 29 on behalf of FFRF, noting that these Ten Commandment monuments “will not withstand judicial …

The Thomas More Law Center announced today that it is representing the City of Frankenmuth, Michigan concerning a constitutional challenge to the 55 foot cross located on public land. The stainless steel cross, constructed with private donations, was erected in1976 as a part of the City’s celebration of America’s Bicentennial.

The Republic: A Chicago-area atheist is using his last legal recourse in challenging the use of state funds to renovate a towering southern Illinois cross, but he acknowledges the odds are “pretty slim” that the U.S. Supreme Court will agree to hear the case.

Jay Sekulow at the Church Report: It’s a troubling pattern that we see often. An atheist group is “offended” by a statue or memorial that they consider to be offensive. They file a federal lawsuit to try to get it removed. This time, it’s happened in Montana . . .

RT.com: Four Orthodox Christian crosses have been chopped down in different parts of Russia. The incidents come after the Femen movement attacked a cross in Kiev to protest the sentence of the punk band Pussy Riot, who received two years in prison.

National Catholic Reporter: A lawsuit that was filed by the group American Atheists to keep a revered cross out of the National September 11 Museum is being challenged by a conservative law firm that defends the public display of religious symbols. The American Center for Law and Justice filed a friend-of-the-court brief Monday on behalf of the suit’s two defendants, the National September 11 Memorial & Museum Foundation and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which owns the site.

Findlaw: Dixie County’s 5-foot, 6-ton Ten Commandments monument can keep standing while the courts decide whether the plaintiff who complained about the statue has standing.

Liberty Counsel: A federal appeals court has reversed the decision in American Civil Liberties Union of Florida, Inc. v. Dixie County Florida. Last summer, a U.S. District Judge ruled in favor of the ACLU and ordered Dixie County to remove the six-ton granite monument of the Ten Commandments. Today’s ruling reverses that decision and sends the case back down to the district court on standing.

Christian Post: Officials in Dugger, Ind., have decided against heading to court to challenge a claim from the Washington, D.C.-based Americans United for Separation of Church and State that a 26-foot cross reading “Jesus Saves” situated on public land is a violation of the Constitution, as it appears to endorse Christianity. Instead, the town will sell the property.

FFRF: U.S. District Court Judge Daniel Breen approved a settlement yesterday between the Freedom From Religion Foundation and the Town of Whiteville, Tenn. The Agreed Judgment ends a lawsuit brought by FFRF against the town and its mayor, James Bellar, over several crosses on town property.

FoxNews: “We will defend this monument no matter what,” he told MyFoxBoston.com. Fontaine said the monument is a symbol of the community, and the city is prepared to fight to keep the monument where it stands.

Herald Star: “The Madison, Wis., foundation has decided to challenge the city over their unofficial logo. And Steubenville has a number of very motivated Christians and Catholics who are used to being very politically motivated. They are also very good at getting media attention on a national basis,” said Terry McKeegan of Steubenville. McKeegan, one of 2,200 attorneys affiliated with the Alliance Defending Freedom, said the city’s unofficial logo may be a strong test case.”This may be the perfect case to take to the Supreme Court,” McKeegan said . . . The FFRF issued a press release Thursday afternoon quoting foundation staff attorney Patrick Elliot as telling Repella, “Do not be duped by offers from religious right legal groups. They may volunteer their time pro bono, but they never pick up the plaintiffs’ tab.”

630wpro.com: An atheist group based in Wisconsin has sent a second letter to the city of Woonsocket calling for the removal of a war memorial featuring a Latin cross from city property.

MLive.com: Frankenmuth could face litigation stemming from the 55-foot white cross in a city park.

GOP USA: But just days ago, attorneys for the Mount Soledad Memorial Association learned that the ACLU has been negotiating with the Department of Justice without including the group that actually maintains the cross and memorial site. That sparked concern on Capitol Hill.

San Francisco Chronicle: Oakland Zoo officials on Wednesday removed a monument from zoo property that a group of atheists objected to because it featured the Ten Commandments.

IndyStar.com: But it’s just a little farther down Route 54 — right there behind the right field fence at the Union High School Bulldogs’ baseball field — where you find the most visible display of faith in town and the sudden source of more than a little angst. It’s a cross — 26 feet tall, white with red lettering, all caps in a serif font. Those letters spell out “Jesus saves.”

KXLF.com: One of those who showed up Monday night at the Veteranns of Foreign Wars in Whitefish was 91-year-old Arnie Funk oh Helena, who made the trip to hear the status of the lawsuit himself. He served in the U.S. Army 10th Mountain Division, the same division for which the statue was erected.

NECN.com: The Daily Inter Lake reports ( ) CeCe Heil with the American Center for Law and Justice told those attending a town hall in Whitefish Monday that case law discourages the government from being “hostile” to religion.

Religion Clause Blog: Now News4Jax reports that in order to avoid a costly legal battle, the county has directed the Community Men’s Fellowship, the group that sponsored the monument, to remove it. However the group has refused.

WHSV.com: The Giles County School Board on Thursday approved the deal . . . Rebecca Glenberg, legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Virginia, says the commandments’ removal will make the school more welcoming to students of all faiths.

Hugh Hewitt and Joe Infranco at National Review: Hamlet, Shakespeare’s melancholy Dane, epitomized the man paralyzed by indecision, never sure how he should feel or act. With the decision to deny review in the case of California’s Mount Soledad Veterans’ Memorial, the U.S. Supreme Court’s long-awaited guidance on religious traditions feels like an extended version of that play.

Providence Journal: Governor Chafee is allowing legislation inspired by the recent controversy over a memorial cross in front of a Woonsocket fire station to become law without his signature.

Liberty Institute: U.S. Supreme Court Temporarily Denies Mt. Soledad Veterans Memorial Cross Case

Religion Clause Blog: In the case, a 3-judge panel of the 9th Circuit held that the now federally-owned Mt. Soledad Memorial featuring a 43-foot high cross conveys a government message of endorsement of religion that violates the Establishment Clause. Subsequently the full 9th Circuit refused an en banc rehearing. However 5 judges, joined an opinion dissenting from the denial of en banc review.

Liberty Institute (links to audio): Kelly highlighted the latest in our fight to preserve veterans memorials that contain religious imagery, including the pending Supreme Court decision on the Mt. Soledad Veterans Memorial Cross case in San Diego, and the land transfer settlement that will pave the way to restoring the Mojave Desert Veterans Memorial Cross in California.