This cross, displayed for decades in Bayview Park in Pensacola, Fla., is the subject of a lawsuit arguing that it violates the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment. The legal battle over whether the city of Pensacola can keep a large cross on display in a public park took a major shift on Wednesday with a ruling the cross can stay. The history of the case is convoluted. A brief timeline: 2016: Four plaintiffs supported by the American Humanist Association and the Freedom From Religion Foundation sue the city of Pensacola. They argue that the 34-foot cross in Bayview Park, which has stood for decades, is an offensive breach of the U.S. Constitution’s separation of church and state and should be torn down. 2017: Pensacola’s defense is supported primarily by the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, but Roy Moore’s Foundation for Moral Law also supports the city’s position, and Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall leads a group of state attorney generals in filing an amicus curiae brief on Pensacola’s behalf . Senior U.S. District Judge Roger Vinson, at great pains to express distaste with his own ruling, finds that the law requires the cross to come down. 2018: A […]
