Summary: Public Advocate files brief in support of Mt. Soledad Cross
On March 4, 2014, the Clerk of the U.S. Supreme Court docketed the Mt. Soledad Memorial Association petition for certiorari seeking review of a December 12, 2013 district court order requiring the removal of a 29-foot cross.
On May 5, 2014, the Court announced its 5-4 decision in Town of Greece v. Galloway, ruling that city councils and other local government bodies - like the Congress of the United States and state legislatures - did not violate the First Amendment's Establishment Clause by inviting clergy to open council meetings in prayer.
In other words, the Town of Greece decision is a game changer, and the Mt. Soledad case may be the first case to put to rest the many arguments that have been employed by the ACLU, the Americans United for Separation of Church and State, and the American Atheist Society in a concerted attempt to get God out of the public square.
Public Advocate's amicus brief addresses that narrow "No Establishment" question in light of Town of Greece, emphasizing the imperative need to ensure that the constitutional principles upon which the majority relied are not limited to prayers before public bodies, but to all aspects of the American constitutional republic life, including war memorials crosses, Ten Commandment displays, and community holiday celebrations.