San Diego, Calif., Jul 27, 2005 / 22:00 pm
The citizens of San Diego have voted to keep a 1954 war memorial that includes a 43-ft concrete cross. More than 75 percent of Tuesday’s votes were in favor of keeping the cross rather than donating the cross and memorial to the federal government as a national war memorial.
The vote was called after a 15-year battle. In 1989, an atheist filed a federal lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the Mt. Soledad Cross because it was located on public property.
After successive yet adverse court rulings, city council decisions, and a local war memorial associations agreement to settle the case by removing the cross, a state judge ruled last week that a vote must be called on the issue. The judgment required a two-thirds vote to keep the cross.
The Thomas More Law Center, a national public interest law firm based in Ann Arbor, Michigan, played an instrumental role in getting the issue to a ballot vote. Its work was the basis for a federal law that declared the site as a National War Memorial and authorized the federal government to receive a donation of the land on which the cross and memorial stood.