Veteran's Memorial Cross Covered from View by Court Order

The Mojave Desert Cross, which stands 75 feet tall and memorializes soldiers who fought for the United States at great sacrifice, has been covered by court order. A federal judge ordered the Cross covered with a plywood box after the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) claimed the display of a cross as a veterans’ memorial violates the so-called “separation of church and state” and is unconstitutional. Advocates for Faith and Freedom filed a "friend of the court" brief with the United States Supreme Court supporting both the Cross and the sacrifice it represents.

The Mojave Desert Cross was erected in 1934 on property that was then owned by a private organization known as the Veterans of Foreign Wars. The property was later deeded to the National Park Service. In 2001, the ACLU sued the National Park Service arguing the Cross was unconstitutional because it sat on federal land and other permanent religious memorials had not been placed on the property. The ACLU argued the federal government was showing favoritism to the Christian symbol.

In 2004, the government transferred the one acre of land the Cross stood on back to the Veterans of Foreign Wars in exchange for five acres of land elsewhere in the Mojave Desert. Nevertheless, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit upheld the lower court’s ruling, and the Cross remains covered by a plywood box. The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to review the case.

“Every man and woman who fought our nation’s wars and died in service is remembered in local, state and national war memorials,” the brief reads. “It is disheartening to think that these memorials may be gutted because there are those who ignore the unique way the cross has universally honored the choice our soldiers made to lay down their lives for the good of the rest of us.”

Advocates for Faith and Freedom recognizes the importance of upholding the memory and sacrifice of the veterans which the memorial embodies. Countless other veterans’ memorials across the country will be endangered if the ACLU succeeds in dismantling the Mojave Desert Cross. In a similar battle spanning 18 years, Advocates has filed multiple briefs in support of San Diego’s Mount Soledad Cross. The ACLU appealed that case to the Ninth Circuit after a San Diego, California, federal judge threw out the ACLU’s case.

The U.S. Supreme Court overturns rulings from the Ninth Circuit more often than any other Circuit in the country. We have hope that the Supreme Court will recognize the error in the lower courts’ rulings and preserve our religious heritage by recognizing the Mojave Desert Cross as a proper memorial for our fallen soldiers. Until then, the Cross will remain covered by a plywood box.

This information is provided by Advocates for Faith and Freedom, a non-profit religious law firm dedicated to protecting religious liberty in the courts! To help us in our ongoing battle for religious freedom, click here to donate to Advocates.