The U.S. Supreme Court is weighing in on the constitutional question of whether the symbol of Christ’s crucifixion is necessarily religious. The high court agreed Nov. 2 to review a lower court ruling that a 40-foot cross at the center of one of the busiest intersections in Prince George’s County, Maryland, violates the First Amendment’s ban on establishing or favoring a religion. The Fourth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in a 2–1 decision in October 2017 that the Peace Cross standing on government property in Bladensburg, Maryland, breaches the “wall of separation” between church and state mandated by the Constitution. Primary effect The majority determined that the monument erected by the American Legion in 1925 to honor veterans of World War I and maintained with government funds “has the primary effect of endorsing religion and excessively entangles the government in religion.” Chief Judge Roger L. Gregory filed a dissenting opinion that “while displaying a religious symbol” the monument was built to memorialize the 49 county residents who gave their lives in battle, and no reasonable observer would understand it “to be a divisive message promoting Christianity over any other religion or nonreligion.” The American Legion, represented by First […]
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