2 Landmark S.D. Crosses Must Go, U.S.
Judge Rules : Law: Religious symbols atop Mt.
Soledad and Mt. Helix
are found in violation of the state Constitution.
SAN DIEGO — In a landmark decision, a San Diego
federal judge ruled Tuesday that the prominent crosses that for years have
topped two public parks, Mt. Soledad in La Jolla and Mt.
Helix near La Mesa, must come down because they violate
the state Constitution's ban on mixing church and state.
In the first federal court
decision in California on the
emotionally charged issue of the cross as religious symbol on public property,
U.S. District Judge Gordon Thompson Jr. also ordered the city of La Mesa to
remove depictions of the Mt. Helix cross from its official insignia. The logo
appears on city stationery, police cars and shoulder patches worn by city
workers.
Thompson gave officials three
months to comply, or to appeal. He said the state Constitution forbids even
"the appearance of religious partiality," and the Mt. Soledad and Mt.
Helix crosses loom large as huge symbols--figuratively and literally--of
Christianity.
The decision marked the latest
entry in a string of decisions issued in recent years across the nation by
judges wrestling with the legality of religious symbols on public property, the
recital of prayers at public meetings and public aid to parochial schools.
The ruling also underscores the
increasing vitality of a legal doctrine called "independent state
grounds," which allows judges to invoke a state's constitution to grant
its citizens greater rights than required by the U.S. Constitution.
The California Constitution
affords even greater protection of religious freedoms than the U.S. Constitution
offers.
The loose coalition of civil
libertarians and atheists who pursued the San
Diego case said Tuesday that the decision was the sort
of holiday cheer they could support unhesitatingly.
"This is the right result,
both constitutionally and in terms of what we should be doing as a diverse
society," said Betty Wheeler, legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union of San Diego
and Imperial Counties,
which challenged the Mt. Helix cross and the La Mesa insignia.
"One of our core values as
Americans is that we don't exclude people from feeling welcome, as a part of
our society, based on their religion," Wheeler said. "We protect
religious liberty by keeping the government out of religion."
Howard Kreisner, who filed suit
with another avowed atheist, Philip K. Paulson, against the Mt. Soledad
cross, called the decision an "example of people without wealth or
influence 'fighting City Hall.' "
It was uncertain Tuesday whether
the city of San Diego, the county
of San Diego or the city of La Mesa, the three governmental bodies sued in the case,
would appeal to the U.S. 9th Circuit
Court of Appeals, the federal appellate court that serves nine Western
states, including California.
Lawyers said that no governmental
body has ever won a federal court appeal of an adverse decision in a cross
case.
San Diego County Supervisor George
Bailey said he will suggest a way around the decision at next week's board
meeting. The Mt. Helix cross is in Bailey's district, and he said he would
propose a transfer of the few square yards in the park on which the Mt. Helix
cross sits to a private, nonprofit corporation.
California
Mount Soledad
(Korean War memorial)
Mount Soledad
is topped by a large concrete Christian cross, first built in 1913, and rebuilt
twice. The cross was initially understood as a signal that Jews were not welcome
in La Jolla. After it was challenged in court
during the late 1980s, it was designated a Korean
War memorial. It became the center of a controversy, known around the
world,[31] over the display of religious symbols on government property. It was
ruled unconstitutional by the United
States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in January 2011.
Note: Jerry Brown is the California state government governor, and his
sister is Kathleen Brown.
Kathleen
Brown is Jerry Brown’s sister, a
member of the Commercial Club of Chicago,
and was the California state government treasurer.
Walter
E. Massey is a member of the Commercial
Club of Chicago, and was the president of Morehouse College.
Jerome
Farris is a trustee at Morehouse College,
and a senior judge for the U.S. Court of
Appeals for the 9th Circuit.
Billye
Aaron is a trustee at Morehouse College,
and a director emeritus at the NAACP
Legal Defense & Educational Fund.
Robert M.
Franklin is the president of Morehouse College,
and was an institutional director at the United
Negro College Fund.
Linda Johnson
Rice is a director at the United
Negro College Fund, a member of the Commercial
Club of Chicago, and a friend of Valerie
B. Jarrett.
Commercial Club of Chicago,
Members Directory
Please note: This link for the
members of the Commercial Club of Chicago can no longer be found.
Valerie B. Jarrett
is a member of the Commercial Club of
Chicago, a friend of Linda Johnson
Rice, the senior adviser for the Barack
Obama administration, and her great uncle is Vernon E. Jordan Jr.
Penny S. Pritzker
is a member of the Commercial Club of
Chicago, and married to Bryan
Traubert.
Bryan Traubert
is married to Penny S. Pritzker, and
a director at the National Park
Foundation.
Vietnam Veterans
Memorial (Past Research on Penny S. Pritzker & Bryan Traubert)
Tuesday, October 15, 2013
Vernon E. Jordan Jr. is Valerie B. Jarrett’s great uncle, an Oak Bluffs (MA) homeowner, senior
director at the NAACP Legal Defense
& Educational Fund, a director at the American Friends of Bilderberg
(think tank), and a 2008 Bilderberg conference participant (think tank).
Spike
Lee is an Oak Bluffs (MA)
homeowner, a trustee at Morehouse College,
and married to Tonya Lewis Lee.
Spike Lee pays up for wrong-address tweet in Trayvon
Martin case
March 30, 2012
Tonya Lewis Lee
is married to Spike Lee, and a
director at the NAACP Legal Defense
& Educational Fund.
Eric H. Holder Jr.
was an intern at the NAACP Legal Defense
& Educational Fund, a partner at Covington
& Burling LLP, is a trustee at the Morehouse
School of Medicine, and the attorney general at the U.S. Department of Justice for the Barack Obama administration.
Alex
Kozinski was an attorney at Covington
& Burling LLP, and is the chief judge for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit.
Louis W. Sullivan
was the president for the Morehouse
School of Medicine, and is an Oak
Bluffs (MA) homeowner.
Henry Louis
Gates Jr. is an Oak Bluffs (MA) homeowner,
a Harvard University professor, and a director
at the NAACP Legal Defense
& Educational Fund.
Harvard Professor Jailed; Officer Is Accused of Bias
By ABBY GOODNOUGH
Published: July 20, 2009
Charles J.
Ogletree Jr. is an Oak Bluffs (MA)
homeowner, a director at the NAACP Legal
Defense & Educational Fund, and was Barack Obama’s college mentor.
Foundation
to Promote Open Society was a funder for the NAACP Legal Defense & Educational Fund, and the American Civil
Liberties Union (ACLU).
George
Soros is the chairman for the Foundation
to Promote Open Society.
Barack
Obama’s mentor was Charles J.
Ogletree Jr, and was an intern at Sidley
Austin LLP.
Michelle
Obama was a lawyer at Sidley Austin
LLP.
Newton
N. Minow is a senior counsel at Sidley
Austin LLP, and a member of the Commercial
Club of Chicago.
R.
Eden Martin is counsel at Sidley
Austin LLP, and the president of the Commercial
Club of Chicago.
Kathleen
Brown is a member of the Commercial
Club of Chicago, Jerry Brown’s
sister, and was the California state government treasurer.
Jerry
Brown is the California state government governor, and his sister is Kathleen Brown.
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