The cross is a war memorial, let it stand.
The Supreme Court agreed Friday to decide whether a 40-foot cross in the median of a busy suburban Maryland highway is a secular memorial to those who died during World War I or an unconstitutional government endorsement of religion.
The Peace Cross, made of granite and cement, was built in 1925 as a tribute to local men who died during World War I. It was paid for by local families, businesses and the American Legion. But the giant cross sits on a piece of land that has been owned since 1961 by a state commission that pays for its maintenance and upkeep.
The challenge to the 93-year-old cross began with the American Humanist Association, a nonprofit atheist organization that has filed similar lawsuits throughout the country. In September, the group won a similar case in which it sought the removal of a 34-foot-tall cross displayed in a city-owned park in Florida.
The high court has sent mixed messages when it comes to public displays of religion, allowing some monuments with religious content to stand while rejecting others.
In Maryland, U.S. District Judge Deborah Chasanow ruled in 2015 that the cross could remain, calling it a historically significant and secular war memorial.
She said there is no indication that the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission’s maintenance of the cross “is driven by a religious purpose,” adding “the evidence of the commission’s secular purpose is uncontroverted.”
But a divided three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit in Richmond disagreed, finding the cross on public land an unconstitutional government endorsement of religion.
The appeals court ordered the commission to remove, relocate or redesign the memorial.
Even though there are nonreligious elements in the monument, “the sectarian elements easily overwhelm the secular ones,” wrote Judge Stephanie D. Thacker.
“The cross is by far the most prominent monument in the area, conspicuously displayed at a busy intersection,” she wrote.
In March, the full appeals court refused to revisit the case in another closely divided decision. One judge has suggested the case could be resolved by stripping the arms from the cross, turning it into something that more resembled an obelisk.
Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, R, and Attorney General Brian Frosh, D, in addition to more than 100 members of Congress, told the high court that the monument should stand. Supporters, including organizations supporting religious liberty, say the 4th Circuit ruling threatens other memorials with religious features, including at Arlington National Cemetery.