SCOTUS undoubtedly chapped the hide of Leftist Transformists
everywhere with its 7-2 to keep the Bladensburg Peace Cross standing on
taxpayer supported public land. Read Justin Smith’s thoughts.
JRH 6/23/19
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The Cross Does Not
Offend the Constitution
A Landmark Victory for Religious Freedom
By Justin O. Smith
Sent 6/22/2019 11:22
PM
"The Constitution as written, not the personal views of judges, should
guide how the American people express their religious faith in the public
square." ~ Emilie Kao, Director of the DeVos Center for Religion and Civil Society
A fine blow was struck for religious freedom, when the United
States Supreme Court handed down a 7 to 2 landmark victory in the
case of the American Legion v. the American Humanist
Organization, on June 20th 2019, as the majority opinion
determined that the Peace Cross on public land in Bladensburg, Maryland, just
outside of D.C., does not violate the Establishment Clause of the U.S.
Constitution. The forty foot tall Peace Cross commemorating forty-nine of
Prince George's County men who died fighting in WWI can now remain on public
land, property of the State of Maryland.
The American Humanist Organization
originally filed suit in 2012, and modified the suit in 2014; they forged ahead
to force the removal of the Peace Cross, suing the Park and Planning Commission
and the American Legion, that originally paid for its erection, in part. The
AHO alleged that the presence of the memorial on public land amounted to a
government establishment of religion.
In the beautiful shape of the Cross, the Bladensburg World
War I Veterans Memorial was erected between 1919 and 1925, by Gold Star Mothers
and a local American Legion post. The Cross design was provided by the Gold
Star Mothers in 1919 to recall the cross-shaped grave markers standing over the
thousands of American graves on the Western Front of WWI, with one mother
actually referring to this memorial as her son's "grave
stone".
This surely had to be at the front of the majority's mind,
in making their decision, since particularly troubled by opposition's
Taliban-style proposal of chopping off the arms of the Cross, Justice Samuel
Alito offered the following in the decision: "Many memorials for Dr.
Martin Luther King, Jr. make reference to his faith. These monuments honor men
and women who have played an important role in the history of our country, and
where religious symbols are included in monuments, their presence acknowledges
the centrality of faith to those whose lives are commemorated."
John Seaburn is the name of one
of the soldier's whose name is memorialized on the plaque at the base of the
Peace Cross, having bravely marched off to join the Army in an all African
American unit. His great-niece, Alvergia Guyton is one of the few people left
with a personal connection to the Cross, stating "It's been there all my
life; it's history", and on June 20th seven Justices in America's Supreme
Court agreed with her, leaving John Seaburn's sacrifice and those sacrifices of
Prince George's Native Sons intact and unsullied.
This case did little to untangle the confusion created by
past Establishment Clause decisions, since two dissenters, Justice Ruth Bader
Ginsburg and Justice Sonia Sotomayor, saw it as a clear violation, and those
seven who did not, Justices John Roberts, Stephen Breyer, Elena Kagan, Clarence
Thomas, Brett Kavanaugh, Neil Gorsuch and Alito all offered opinions that
didn't offer a fix to the underlying problem and the many different past
interpretations regarding the intent of the Constitution. So, these sort of
issues will continue to manifest themselves, and if anything, this case reveals
the importance of Justices who view the Constitution through the prism of
Original Intent.
And even though "separation of Church and State"
is a fallacy and a gross misinterpretation of a passage written to
the Danbury Baptist Church by Thomas Jefferson,
the AHO vowed to fight on to "bolster the First Amendment" and to
"(redouble their) works to strengthen the wall of separation between
church and state, brick by brick."
In her dissent, Justice Ginsberg stated: "Soldiers of all
faiths 'are united by their love of country, but they are not united by the
cross ... ' By maintaining the Peace Cross on a public highway, the Commission
elevates Christianity over other faiths, and religion over
nonreligion."
America was founded as a Christian nation, and that's just a
historical fact and a matter of record, but it was founded to also be tolerant
of all other religious beliefs. The Founding Fathers' vision was a country that
facilitated all Americans' free expression of faith even if in the public
square, and all across the span of our nation's history, Americans have used
religious symbols to commemorate a variety of meaningful events, whether one
speaks of holidays, the Courts and sworn oaths or prayer in State legislatures.
[Blog Editor: Many
Leftists, Secular Humanists, Separation of Church-State Ideologues and probably
other Anti-Christian groups would strongly disagree with Justin’s belief, “America was founded as a Christian nation”.
To justify their misguided Anti-Christian attitude you will read the
Left-version of cherry picking that actually twist facts. The Left will accuse
Christians of cherry picking as well, but the difference Leftist cherry picking
often are quoting out of context or using a historical person who represented
an absolute minority opinion as in the rare atheist or French-influenced Deist
(AND there is quite a difference between
a French Deist and an American Christian Deist). Here are some posts demonstrating
America’s Christian heritage which trust is not exhaustive:
o Tocqueville
on Christianity and American Democracy; Carson Holloway; The
Heritage Foundation; 3/7/16
President Trump's appointment to the Court, Justice Neil
Gorsuch rightfully suggested that the Court shouldn't have heard the case,
because the plaintiffs could show no concrete injury other than they were
"offended" by seeing it as they pass it. Gorsuch wrote: "This
'offended observer' theory of standing has no basis in law ... What matters ...
to assessing a monument, symbol, or practice isn't its age but its compliance
with ageless principles. The Constitution's meaning is fixed, not some
good-for-this-day-only coupon, and a practice consistent with our nation's
traditions is permissible whether undertaken today or 94 years ago."
Justice Samuel Alito, writing the Majority Opinion for the
Court, noted: "(The Peace Cross)
has become a prominent community landmark, and its removal or radical alteration
at this date would be seen by many not as a neutral act but as the
manifestation of 'a hostility toward religion that has no place in our
Establishment Clause traditions ... The Religion Clauses of the Constitution
aim to foster a society in which people of all beliefs can live
together harmoniously, and the presence of the Bladensburg Cross on the land
where it has stood for so many years is fully consistent with that aim. The
Cross is undoubtedly a Christian symbol, but that fact should not blind us to
everything else that the Bladensburg Cross has come to represent ... For all
these reasons, the Cross does not offend the Constitution."
Kelly Shackelford, president
of First Liberty law firm and a defender of religious freedom, who
defended the case, exclaimed: "This is a
landmark victory for religious freedom. The days of illegitimately weaponizing
the Establishment Clause and attacking religious symbols in public are
over."
Forever memorialized, these men were regular, ordinary
Americans, doctors, farmers and laborers, educators, some in their prime and
one in his fifties -- already wounded -- who probably shouldn't have been on
the front lines. They all had one thing in common. They never came home and
they were much loved and sorely missed by those who waited for their return.
And one-hundred years after WWI, Americans are still fighting for the concrete
ideas these fine American patriots died to give us, the foundation of the First
Amendment and its manifested inherent Freedom.
Many descendants of these fine men have lived with the Peace
Cross all their lives, as it has stood gracing the skyline one mile from D.C.
for nearly a century, and they are shocked to their very core that any American
would challenge its right to exist, regardless of its placement on public land.
Their memories include the story of the mothers who slowly pulled the American
Flag from the base of the Cross ninety-four years ago to reveal the names of
forty-nine soldiers, American heroes, who made the final sacrifice of their
lives in World War I. It's survived all this time, through WWII, Korea,
Vietnam, Desert Storm and 9/11 and Enduring Freedom, and now, Thanks to God and
the Supreme Court, it has survived its most dire threat and a terrible battle
with radical, extreme atheists intent and determined to destroy this much
respected and greatly loved memorial simply because it was in the shape of the
Cross.
By Justin O. Smith
________________________________
Edited by John R. Houk
Source links and text enclosed by brackets are by the
/editor.
Justin O. Smith
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