Cross-shaped memorial is unconstitutional, court rules
Three secularist organizations objected to goverment funds maintaining the 40-foot-high World War I memorial.
A World War I memorial in Bladensburg, Maryland. Photo by Ben Jacobson via Creative Commons license.
A 40-foot-high cross has stood on public land in a Washington, D.C., suburb for almost a century. Now it has been deemed unconstitutional by a federal court.
The Fourth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in October that the so-called Peace Cross, which commemorates World War I veterans, violates the establishment clause of the Constitution with “excessive religious entanglement.”
“The Latin cross is the core symbol of Christianity,” the court wrote in its opinion. This one is “maintained with thousands of dollars in government funds.”
