Important news has been received regarding the Mt. Soledad National Veterans Memorial Case which is pending in the 9th Circuit Court of Appeal on ACLU’s appeal of our veterans’ victory in the U.S. District Court, which ruled, after twenty years of ACLU-backed litigation, that the cross at Mt. Soledad honoring veterans does not violate the Establishment of Religion Clause.
 
The 9th Circuit has issued an order for additional legal briefs to be filed in the Mt. Soledad case “on the application of Salazar v. Buono, — S.Ct. —-, 2010 WL 1687118 (2010), to this case. ” (Order issued in Case 3:06-cv-01597-LAB -WMC Trunk, et al v. City of San Diego, et al, USCA Order, May 26, 2010.)
The Supreme Court’s decision in our favor in Salazar v. Buono , rendered on April 28, 2010, rejected the ACLU’s secular extremist position that the Mojave Desert Veterans Memorial could not be transferred from public hands and land to private hands and land. That is, the Supreme Court overturned the orders of the U.S. District Court and the 9th Circuit enjoining implementation of the Congressional Act achieved by Rep. Jerry Lewis (R-CA) providing for a land exchange of the one-acre Memorial site from the Mojave Preserve to the VFW, for five-acres of private land donated by the Sandoz family to the Mojave Preserve.
The Mt. Soledad case also involves a transfer of a memorial, from the City of San Diego to the federal Department of Defense of the Mt. Soledad Memorial. The U.S. States Senate voted unanimously for the memorial to be transferred to the federal government after a U.S. District Judge ordered the cross destroyed, and after 76% of the citizens of San Diego voting in a referendum ordered the City Council to transfer the memorial, reversing by vote of the people the City’s refusal to transfer the memorial in order to save it.
Further, the language used by the Supreme Court in the Salazar v. Buono opinion written by Justice Kennedy strongly rejects the ACLU’s secular extremism position on crosses at memorials, and in the public realm generally. The Salzar vs Buono opinion states regarding the cross:
         “[A]  Latin cross is not merely a reaffirmation of Christian beliefs. It is a symbol often used to honor and respect those whose heroic acts, noble contributions, and patient striving help secure an honored place in history for this Nation and its people. Here, a Latin cross in the desert evokes far more than religion. It evokes thousands of small crosses in foreign fields marking the graves of Americans who fell in battles, battles whose tragedies are compounded if the fallen are forgotten.”
The Supreme Court further stated, in contradiction to ACLU’s extremist secular position: 
    “The goal of avoiding governmental endorsement [of religion] does not require eradication of all religious symbols in the public realm. A cross by the side of a public highway marking, for instance, the place where a state trooper perished need not be taken as a statement of governmental support for sectarian beliefs.  The Constitution does not oblige government to avoid any public acknowledgment of religion’s role in society.”
    
This is strong language indicating the view of the Supreme Court.  Hopefully, it will persuade the 9th Circuit Court of Appeal, the most liberal circuit in the country, not to overturn our victory over the ACLU in the U.S. District Court which preserved Mt. Soledad “as it is, where it is,” and has been for over sixty years, with a cross honoring fallen veterans intact.
But, while this is good news, there is a long fight to be made: The Supreme Court remanded the Mojave Desert case to the U.S. District Court in Riverside for further proceedings consistent with the High Court’s decision. It is all but certain that the Mt. Soledad case will also be appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court. 
Thus, we have to keep fighting the ACLU, which has become the Taliban of American Liberal Secularism, and other intolerant secular fanatics who are attempting to impose their extremist secularism on America and destroy all symbols of our American history and heritage if they have a religious aspect, particularly the cross. 
FOR GOD AND COUNTRY FOREVER; SURRENDER TO THE ACLU– NEVER!
(Rees Lloyd, a former staff attorney of the ACLU of So. Cal., is a longtime civil rights attorney and now one of the attorneys fighting the ACLU’s secular extremist attacks on veterans memorials as Director of the Defense of Veterans Memorials of the Defense of Veterans Memorials Project of The American Legion Dept. of Cal.)
Tell ’em where you saw it. Http://www.victoriataft.com