A legal battle over religious freedom is happening in a small town outside of San Francisco, California, as a small group of Christians fight to re-install a 28-foot cross removed from a plot of land in June.
A bench trial started in a U.S. district court to determine whether the city of Albany Hill could use eminent domain to take the Lions Club’s easement, which has been used to access the cross for over 50 years. Since 1970, the cross has sat atop Albany Hill overlooking California’s East Bay. Dorena Osborn told the Washington Times that it’s been there since her father and another community leader sold 1.1 acres of land to the city.
The Lions Club was granted an easement as part of a 1973 deal. The land was then turned into a public park, and the cross was built. For the past 52 years, the cross has been lit up for Christmas and Easter, a pillar for worshippers in the community. However, in 2015, the monument was scrutinized when East Bay Atheists started challenging the cross’ constitutionality. In 2017, Albany’s mayor also criticized the Lions Club for illuminating the cross for a 9/11 anniversary.
In a 2017 statement, then-Mayor Peggy McQuaid said, “I want to reiterate that neither the City Council nor the City of Albany endorses in any way the lighting of the cross for any occasion, religious or nationalistic, or supports its continued presence on public property.” In 2018, a judge ruled that the cross violated the Establishment Clause of the U.S. Constitution. The city was forced to either sell to a private party the small plot of ground where the cross rested or acquire the easement through eminent domain and remove the cross.
In 2022, the city council unanimously passed a resolution to acquire the easement instead of accepting the Lions Club’s offer to buy the small plot. A district judge granted the city’s request for prejudgement possession of the cross depending on the outcome of the Lions Club’s lawsuit over the eminent domain action. The cross was quietly taken off the property and stored on June 8.
Albany Mayor Aaron Tiefemann maintained that removing the cross was more “consistent with their values.” He told the East Bay Times, “The city has actually put its money where its mouth is, and our city looks a little bit more accepting now in a way that we think is consistent with our values. For the small local group of people that really want to see the cross stay, when you’ve had such privilege for so long, losing it feels like being oppressed. That’s going to be an adjustment for folks, but I think we will all get used to it, and I think it’s a real benefit.”
Lions Club President Kevin Pope told the Washington Times the city leaders do not want any monument memorializing the Christian faith. He said, “The City Council seem to hate what it represents, and rather than take an amount of money for the land and sell it to the Lions Club, they’ve decided to spend what we think is probably close to $1 million to resolve this issue, instead of doing the easy thing. That’s how much they hate it.”
The trial will determine whether the city has to give the group back the cross or if the Lions Club will receive a settlement from the city for its removal. If given the cross back, the group could face more challenges in erecting it due to zoning and permitting.