Case of Oregon Man "Offended" by Cali Cross Goes to SCOTUS. Yes, They’re Coming for Your God, Too…

February 26, 2009

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Rees Lloyd, a civil rights attorney and Veterans activist, writes for World Net Daily and the Victoria Taft blog. He has helped litigate the case of an Oregon anti God kook who wants to cleanse all public property of all signs of God. The case of the cross at the Mojave Desert Veterans Memorial is now headed to the US Supreme Court.



OFFENDED” BY CROSS AT VETERANS MEMORIAL IN CALIFORNIA DESERT

by REES LLOYD

The U.S. Supreme Court has announced that it will hear and rule on the controversial Mojave Desert Veterans Memorial Cross Case (Salazar vs. Buono). It promises to be a landmark precedent which will affect how Americans can choose to honor their war dead and other veterans, and will determine the limits of the Establishment of Religion Clause of the U.S. Constitution.

Notwithstanding, the Oregonian did not find the Supreme Court’s action newsworthy as no story could be located, in contrast to most major American newspapers, which did inform the citizenry of this issue of nationwide impact.

Congressman Jerry Lewis (R-CA), who represents the District and passed legislation to preserve the memorial which the a U.S. District Judge nullified, which the 9th Circuit Court of Appeal affirmed, said:

“I am gratified that the U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to review the case of the Mojave Desert Veterans Memorial. I am confident that the justices will see the simple truth that this is a historic site honoring the sacrifices of those who died defending our nation. Frankly, I am disappointed that this case has had to go this far, and I am grateful to the American Legion and other veterans groups who have helped ensure that it has maintained support from the American public.”

The Supreme Court’s announcement comes after some seven years of litigation and legislative action to preserve the Mojave Desert Veterans Memorial. The U.S. District Court in Riverside in 2002 ordered the memorial destroyed at the behest of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), which claims the presence of a cross there — two pipes strapped together on a rock outcrop 11 miles off the highway by veterans to honor WWI veterans –constitutes an endorsement of religion in violation of the Establishment Clause, rather than a memorial to veterans.

The memorial was originally established by the Veterans of Foreign Wars in 1934 on its own, private land. But the VFW donated the land to the government, and almost seven decades later, former President William Clinton ordered it incorporated in the Mojave Desert Preserve. Although there had never been a complaint about the cross for some 70 years, the ACLU sued for plaintiff Frank Buono, on his claim that he is “offended” by the presence of the cross on what is now federal property.

The ACLU, which, generally unknown to the public, is reaping millions of dollars in profits in Establishment Clause secular-cleansing lawsuits against veterans memorials, the Boy Scouts, public seals, asked for and received some $60,000 as a judge-ordered, taxpayer-paid attorney fee award for obtaining an order for the destruction of the veterans memorial for the offended Bueno.

Ironically, Buono was Assistant Superintendent of the Mojave Preserve at the time the memorial was incorporated into the Preserve, but did not object, take action, or make any complaint whatsoever about the cross.

However, after he retired and moved to Oregon, he had the ACLU sue to destroy the veterans memorial in California on the basis it “offends” him even though he lives in Oregon.

One of the issues the Supreme Court will decide is whether a person who lives hundreds or thousands of miles from a veterans memorial has legal “standing” to sue to destroy it because he or she is offended by a symbol or expression there which has religious significance.

Another issue to be decided is whether the Congress can be prohibited by a single federal judge from legislating the transfer of land from public to private hands to cure any suggestion of governmental endorsement of a religion, as Congress did when it passed Rep. Jerry Lewis’ bill for the “land swap” which put the memorial back on private land in private hands, as it originally was.

Another is whether mere taking “offense” at the sight of a religious symbol or expression should provide a veto power to a single person over the decisions of communities as to how to honor those who have defended American freedom, many at the cost of their lives.

Whatever the Supreme Court decides, it will affect all of America.

(Rees Lloyd is a longtime civil rights attorney and former ACLU staff attorney of the ACLU, is the founder and Director of the Defense of Veterans Memorials Project of The American Legion Department of California and the Alliance Defense Fund, which will participate in the Supreme Court litigation against the ACLU, which Lloyd claims has become the “Taliban of American liberal secularism.”)

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