Fourth Circuit: 90-Year-Old Cross-Shaped Monument to WW1 Dead Is Illegal – IOTW Report

Fourth Circuit: 90-Year-Old Cross-Shaped Monument to WW1 Dead Is Illegal

Breitbart: Wednesday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit ordered the removal of a Bladensburg, Maryland, World War I memorial because its 40-foot tall cross shape violates the First Amendment’s Establishment Clause, reversing a lower court ruling that would have preserved the monument and drawing impassioned reactions from litigants and observers throughout the week.

 

Bladensburg’s “Peace Cross” was erected by the American Legion in 1925 to honor the 49 men from Prince George’s County who fell in the Great War. In 1961, a Maryland state agency took possession of the land on which the monument sits.

Two of the three judges hearing an appeal led by atheist non-profit the American Humanist Association (AHA) agreed that the cross being allowed to stand was a violation of the “separation of church and state,” regardless of the monument’s stated purpose of honoring the war dead. Defendants, including the American Legion, argued that the cross shape and the inclusion of references to “God” in the memorial’s dedication did not amount to a government “endorsement” of Christianity.

“[T]he sectarian elements easily overwhelm the secular ones,” the majority opinion by Barack Obama-appointed Judge Stephanie Thacker reads.

23 Comments on Fourth Circuit: 90-Year-Old Cross-Shaped Monument to WW1 Dead Is Illegal

  1. 0bama did his job. Destroy the military, demonize Christianity, ruin traditional institutions, pollute the judiciary, trash the Constitution, and otherwise make America the hell-hole it is becoming.
    This “cross burning” is just one example.

  2. Why not just raze Arlington to make the libs happy? They can put up refugee camps for Muslims, and not have to be reminded that millions of decent Americans died so they can be as trashy as they want to be.

  3. First they came for the Confederate flags.
    Then they came for the statues.
    Now they’re coming for the crosses.

    I fear this is not going to end well.

    There will be a reckoning.

  4. Haven’t heard much from antifa recently. Maybe a blip on Columbus Day. I think the only way monuments get torn down now is by executive order – although I think politicians and activist judges will continue to push that route.
    I think the unmasking policy did the trick.

  5. Where is the LAW that requires the ‘separation of church and state”?! It is merely a principle.

    And that principle does not apply here. If the American Legion paid for and erected that memorial, who has the right to destroy it?!!!!!!

    If my family honors its patriarch with a similar monument, then some vandal/anarchist/lowlife(lawyer) can decide to come around at a later date and destroy it?!

    Let’s get this mentality on the record and exterminate them now or send them one-way to a distant planet’s penal colony.

  6. And if each of the soldiers honored was a Christian, who has the right to defile their established memorial? What about the deceased’s First and Ninth Amendment rights?

  7. The Founders weren’t anti-religion, just the opposite.

    Separation of church and state is a “concept” based in the Establishment Clause, found in the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.

    The Establishment Clause was extended to apply to the states through the Fourteenth Amendment, and prohibits laws dealing with the establishment of religion.

    Neither the state or federal government may enact laws which aid one or all religions, or give a preference to one religion over another.

    The Establishment Clause was intended to prohibit the federal government from declaring and financially supporting a national religion.

  8. In 1961, a Maryland state agency took possession of the land on which the monument sits.

    Because turning “it” — whatever “it” is – over to The Magical Constitution, assisted by It’s Magical Elves, The Government, will keep things out of evil people’s clutches. Fer ever, an ever, nomen.

  9. People who are offendd by religious symbols really should get their heads examined. They have mental issues and feel the need to impose their views on others. Progressives can’t seem to live and let live.

    At the mere mention of removing a memorial cross by a small minority for their selfish feelings, our ancestors would have had them tar and feathered before beating the shit out of them.

  10. “…the majority opinion by Barack Obama-appointed Judge Stephanie Thacker reads.”

    Okay just knowing that an Obama-mo wrote that decision makes it irrelevant. Since so many cities are not obeying Title 8 and giving out immigration benefits. So I guess I can ignore the fourth circuit and make Federal opinion by myself.

  11. “Maryland” though named ostensibly after Queen Mary is actually named after Mary, the Mother of Christ (since that’s who Queen Mary was named for), so they must change the name of Maryland to something secular: ShitHole, CessPit, Crapistan, Illegal-Alien-Land, or something of that sort.
    They really need to separate church from state.

    By the way, where is that “separation of church and state” thing, since Maryland originated as a Roman Catholic colony and State? Is it in the Maryland Charter, or Constitution? It certainly isn’t in the US Constitution – for the 1st Amendment (thereto) reads: “Congress shall make no law … blah, blah, blah … and says nothing of the State of Maryland.

    These “judges” must be illiterate.

    izlamo delenda est …

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