{"id":230,"date":"2011-05-23T16:23:16","date_gmt":"2011-05-23T20:23:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/faithandjustice\/?p=230"},"modified":"2011-05-25T11:47:58","modified_gmt":"2011-05-25T15:47:58","slug":"a-cross-case-for-the-supreme-court","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithandjustice\/2011\/05\/a-cross-case-for-the-supreme-court.html","title":{"rendered":"A Cross Case for the Supreme Court?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Very few cases make it to the Supreme Court of the United States.\u00a0 But, there&#8217;s a case out of Utah that has significant ramifications &#8211; a case that we believe the high court should hear.<\/p>\n<p>Here&#8217;s the background:<\/p>\n<p>The Utah Highway Patrol Association, a private, nonreligious organization, erected Latin crosses that conspicuously displayed, along with the Highway Patrol logo, the names, pictures, ranks, badge numbers, service information, and years of death of Utah Highway Patrol officers who died in the line of duty. The Association erected the crosses in locations safely accessible to the public that were as close as possible to the sites where the officers died. The crosses were intended to serve as memorials to the officers\u2019 service and sacrifice and to remind drivers of the importance of driving safely.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_229\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-229\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/faithandjustice\/files\/2011\/05\/Utah-Cross-Memorial.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-229\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/240\/2011\/05\/Utah-Cross-Memorial-300x222.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"222\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-229\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Roadside memorial cross honoring fallen Utah state troopers<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>An atheist organization challenged these cross memorials and last summer a <a href=\"http:\/\/us.cnn.com\/2010\/US\/08\/18\/utah.highway.crosses\/index.html?hpt=Mid\" target=\"_blank\">federal appeals court declared that they violate the Establishment Clause of the U.S. Constitution<\/a>. The federal appeals court also <a href=\"http:\/\/www.msnbc.msn.com\/id\/40949793\/ns\/us_news-crime_and_courts\/t\/court-blocks-removal-utah-highway-crosses\/\" target=\"_blank\">stayed an order<\/a> that would remove the crosses immediately, giving the state time to appeal to the Supreme Court.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/on_the_front_lines_of_the_culture_wars\/2011\/04\/why-do-they-despise-americas-crosses.html\">CLICK HERE to read more about the Utah cross dilemma<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Now, the high court has been asked to take the case &#8211; with the Attorney General for the state of Utah <a href=\"http:\/\/www.attorneygeneral.utah.gov\/PR_042011.html\" target=\"_blank\">making a formal appeal last month<\/a>.\u00a0 Today, we filed an amicus brief urging the high court to\u00a0take this case, and to\u00a0overturn the 10th Circuit, clearing\u00a0the way for these cross memorials to remain in place.<\/p>\n<p>In our <a href=\"http:\/\/www.aclj.org\/media\/pdf\/ACLJ_Amicus-Davenport-v-American-Atheists_20110523.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">amicus brief<\/a>, we note that the Justices, not long ago, weighed in on a similar case and decided that a WWI war memorial that included a cross is constitutional.<\/p>\n<p>The high court should reach the same conclusion in this Utah case as it did in April 2010 in the case of <em>Salazar, Secretary of the Interior, et al., v. Buono<\/em>, (08-472).\u00a0 With that decision, the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.aclj.org\/Media\/PDF\/SC_Salazar_v_buono_04282010.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">high court ruled<\/a> that the memorial in California\u2019s Mojave Desert that features a memorial cross can remain in place.\u00a0 A plurality opinion by Justice Anthony Kennedy observed:\u00a0 &#8220;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\u2019s role in society. . . . Rather, it leaves room to accommodate divergent values within a constitutionally permissible framework.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Our brief is posted <a href=\"http:\/\/www.aclj.org\/media\/pdf\/ACLJ_Amicus-Davenport-v-American-Atheists_20110523.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>This case represents just another troubling example of the courts being used to remove symbols to honor those who have given their lives in service to others &#8211; in this case, Utah Highway Patrol officers. The truth is that the mere existence of a religious symbol in a public place need not trigger a constitutional crisis.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The federal appeals court got this one wrong.\u00a0 The Supreme Court should step in and correct this flawed decision.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Very few cases make it to the Supreme Court of the United States.\u00a0 But, there&#8217;s a case out of Utah that has significant ramifications &#8211; a case that we believe the high court should hear. Here&#8217;s the background: The Utah Highway Patrol Association, a private, nonreligious organization, erected Latin crosses that conspicuously displayed, along with&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":401,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73,8,66],"tags":[75,743,77,78,744,767,76],"class_list":["post-230","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-memorial-crosses","category-supreme-court","category-u-s-constitution","tag-10th-circuit-appeals-court","tag-aclj","tag-establishment-clause","tag-highway-cross-memorial","tag-supreme-court","tag-utah","tag-utah-highway-patrol"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>A Cross Case for the Supreme Court? - Faith &amp; Justice<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithandjustice\/2011\/05\/a-cross-case-for-the-supreme-court.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"A Cross Case for the Supreme Court? - Faith &amp; Justice\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Very few cases make it to the Supreme Court of the United States.\u00a0 But, there&#8217;s a case out of Utah that has significant ramifications &#8211; a case that we believe the high court should hear. Here&#8217;s the background: The Utah Highway Patrol Association, a private, nonreligious organization, erected Latin crosses that conspicuously displayed, along with&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithandjustice\/2011\/05\/a-cross-case-for-the-supreme-court.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Faith &amp; Justice\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-05-23T20:23:16+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2011-05-25T15:47:58+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/faithandjustice\/files\/2011\/05\/Utah-Cross-Memorial-300x222.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jay Sekulow\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"A Cross Case for the Supreme Court? - Faith &amp; Justice","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithandjustice\/2011\/05\/a-cross-case-for-the-supreme-court.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"A Cross Case for the Supreme Court? - Faith &amp; Justice","og_description":"Very few cases make it to the Supreme Court of the United States.\u00a0 But, there&#8217;s a case out of Utah that has significant ramifications &#8211; a case that we believe the high court should hear. Here&#8217;s the background: The Utah Highway Patrol Association, a private, nonreligious organization, erected Latin crosses that conspicuously displayed, along with&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithandjustice\/2011\/05\/a-cross-case-for-the-supreme-court.html","og_site_name":"Faith &amp; Justice","article_published_time":"2011-05-23T20:23:16+00:00","article_modified_time":"2011-05-25T15:47:58+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/faithandjustice\/files\/2011\/05\/Utah-Cross-Memorial-300x222.jpg"}],"author":"Jay Sekulow","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithandjustice\/2011\/05\/a-cross-case-for-the-supreme-court.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithandjustice\/2011\/05\/a-cross-case-for-the-supreme-court.html","name":"A Cross Case for the Supreme Court? - Faith &amp; Justice","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithandjustice\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithandjustice\/2011\/05\/a-cross-case-for-the-supreme-court.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithandjustice\/2011\/05\/a-cross-case-for-the-supreme-court.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/faithandjustice\/files\/2011\/05\/Utah-Cross-Memorial-300x222.jpg","datePublished":"2011-05-23T20:23:16+00:00","dateModified":"2011-05-25T15:47:58+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithandjustice\/#\/schema\/person\/fd4c384af0620d4b82ae09cf1d77bdb4"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithandjustice\/2011\/05\/a-cross-case-for-the-supreme-court.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithandjustice\/2011\/05\/a-cross-case-for-the-supreme-court.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithandjustice\/2011\/05\/a-cross-case-for-the-supreme-court.html#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/faithandjustice\/files\/2011\/05\/Utah-Cross-Memorial-300x222.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/faithandjustice\/files\/2011\/05\/Utah-Cross-Memorial-300x222.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithandjustice\/2011\/05\/a-cross-case-for-the-supreme-court.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithandjustice"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"A Cross Case for the Supreme Court?"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithandjustice\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithandjustice\/","name":"Faith &amp; Justice","description":"Jay Sekulow - ACLJ","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithandjustice\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithandjustice\/#\/schema\/person\/fd4c384af0620d4b82ae09cf1d77bdb4","name":"Jay Sekulow","description":"Jay Sekulow is Chief Counsel for the American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ), a law firm and educational organization that focuses on constitutional law. He is also Chief Counsel of the European Centre for Law and Justice (ECLJ). Jay Sekulow is one of the leading defenders of constitutional rights and religious liberties in the United States. Over the past 25 years, Jay Sekulow has amassed an unparalleled record of accomplishment, arguing before the U.S. Supreme Court on 12 occasions. His aggressive litigation strategy before the Supreme Court has led to many landmark First Amendment victories. In his first case before the Supreme Court, Jews for Jesus, Jay Sekulow secured the right of religious groups to pass out tracks in airports. In Mergens, Jay Sekulow successfully protected the right of students to form Bible clubs and prayer groups on public school campuses. In Lamb\u2019s Chapel, Jay Sekulow cleared the way for churches to have equal access to public facilities in the same way that other groups are permitted to utilize those facilities. In the Bray and Operation Rescue cases, Jay Sekulow protected the free speech rights of pro-life advocates to be free from criminal prosecution for conveying their pro-life message. In McConnell v. FEC, Jay Sekulow protected the right of young people to engage in the political process by donating to the campaign of their choice. In Pleasant Grove, Jay Sekulow paved the way for governments to be able to display Ten Commandments monuments, and other monuments of their choosing, in public parks. Through the ACLJ, Jay Sekulow engages the political, legal, and cultural battles facing America today. He routinely works with Members of Congress, advising them on proposed legislation and representing them in critical legal matters. Jay Sekulow has also testified before Congress on the constitutionality of proposed legislation. Also, in addition to being a successful Supreme Court advocate, Jay Sekulow is a highly respected broadcaster. Jay Sekulow is the host of Jay Sekulow Live! which airs each weekday on over 850 radio stations nationwide, in addition Sirius and XM satellite radio. He brings insight and education to listeners daily through this national call-in radio program. He is also the host of the ACLJ This Week, the ACLJ\u2019s weekly television program. Jay Sekulow regularly appears on major media outlets, including FOX News, CNN, ABC, CBS, and NBC, where he is sought out for his vast experience in constitutional law and his unique insight into many of the pressing legal and political issues facing America today. He is frequently quoted in the nation's leading newspapers and often contributes opinion editorials to national publications. Jay Sekulow has also published numerous law review and other scholarly articles. Jay Sekulow has received numerous honors for his groundbreaking legal work in the area of free speech and religious liberties. The Legal Times has named Sekulow one of \u201cThe 90 Greatest Washington Lawyers of the Last 30 Years\u201d and the National Law Journal has twice named Sekulow one of the \u201c100 Most Influential Lawyers\u201d in the United States. In addition, TIME Magazine listed Jay Sekulow as one of the \"25 Most Influential Evangelicals\" in America. Jay Sekulow\u2019s legal work in defense of religious liberties and human rights extends beyond the United States, having founded the ECLJ in Strasbourg, France, which maintains consultative status with the United Nations. He has also opened offices in Pakistan, Africa, and Jerusalem, Israel. Jay Sekulow is a staunch defender of Israel, presenting arguments before the International Criminal Court at the Hague. His efforts in support of Israel\u2019s right to defend itself from terrorist attacks have been commended by Israeli government officials, one official stating, \"Jay was instrumentally-involved in projects that the President of Israel and the Prime Minister put on our national agenda.\" Jay Sekulow also has a passion for educating the next generation of religious liberty advocates. He is a member of the Regent University Law School Faculty as a Distinguished Professor of Law and routinely teaches courses on constitutional law and presents guest lectures. Jay Sekulow has also started educational programs in international human rights law in Strasbourg, France and at Handong University in South Korea. Jay Sekulow is a graduate of Mercer University, earning both a bachelor\u2019s degree and doctor of jurisprudence. Sekulow served on the editorial staff of the Mercer Law Review and graduated cum laude. He later earned a Ph.D. from Regent University, writing his dissertation on American Legal History. Jay Sekulow also serves on the Board of Trustees for The Supreme Court Historical Society in Washington, D.C. Jay Sekulow, ACLJ Chief Counsels full biography and video. Jay Sekulow on Facebook. Jay Sekulow on Twitter. Jay Sekulow on YouTube.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithandjustice\/author\/jay_sekulow"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithandjustice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithandjustice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithandjustice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithandjustice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/401"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithandjustice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=230"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithandjustice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":241,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithandjustice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230\/revisions\/241"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithandjustice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=230"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithandjustice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=230"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithandjustice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=230"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}