Re: OT.Veterans Fight to Keep 75-yr. old Mojave Desert Memorial


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Posted by David Sherman on Friday, July 10, 2009 at 21:51:28 :

In Reply to: Re: OT.Veterans Fight to Keep 75-yr. old Mojave Desert Memorial posted by Rick on Friday, July 10, 2009 at 19:58:28 :

Good point about the Alamo. There are also lots of public buildings that have something about God on them somewhere or other. Obviously both sides present their strongest arguments in court. The plaintiff will claim that it constitutes a governmental promotion of religion. The defense ought to argue, among other things, that like the Alamo, sacred Indian sites, and various statues and monuments, it's primarily an historical monument. Regardless of what it meant religiously when it was built, it's now a part of history and must be preserved for that reason. I suspect that the men who built it were thinking a lot more about commemorating their lost friends than they were in telling people 100 years down the line to worship Jesus. It's just a natural thought, especially in those days, that you put up a simple cross to commemorate someone's death. A cross in the ground says "someone died or is buried here". It doesn't say "I want you to become a Christian."

Hopefully the judges will see that the reasonable thing to do is leave it. It's the job of the defense attorneys to give them a legally acceptable excuse for doing so. This court likes to rule as narrowly as possible. They are not going to issue a ruling that says something broad like "No crosses may exist on public land" (What about the Mount of the Holy Cross in Colorado?). They will find some way to either allow or reject this particular cross without leaving a big opening for other cases either way. If they want the cross gone, all they need to do is decide not to hear the appeal. They don't even need a reason.

In law, issues can't be raised on appeal that weren't already raised in lower courts. If the people who defended the monument in the lower courts did a poor job of making their case, even the best lawyers now will be hamstrung by those mistakes when appealing it. If the veterans lose their appeal, I sure wouldn't want to be the guy detailed by the BLM to drive out there with a torch and cut it down. But I suppose to the guys who are used to burning cabins, bulldozing ghost towns, and obliterating 100 year old mines, it's all in a day's work.





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