Antidisestablishmentarianism

Conservative legal groups defending San Diego's Mount Soledad cross have praised a ruling by a three-judge panel rendering a 17-year-old lawsuit moot and dismissing a 1991 court order for city authorities to remove the cross.

"The federal appeals court reached the proper conclusion in dismissing this case," said Jay Sekulow, chief counsel of the American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ). "This brings to an end one legal chapter in this ongoing fight to keep the Mount Soledad cross in place."

But the fight to save the cross continues! The 43-foot-tall structure, which was erected in the 1950s to honor U.S. veterans, has been threatened for years as a result of an atheist's lawsuit.

Because the city transferred all title and interest to the cross and the property on which it sits to the federal government for use as a national war memorial honoring veterans, the lawsuit filed in 1989 is now moot, said Robert Muise, trial attorney for the Thomas More Law Center, who argued the case.

"Memorials like the one at Mount Soledad are a tribute to our nation's veterans," said Tim Chandler, legal counsel for the Alliance Defense Fund (ADF), who called the case "part of the crusade against a memorial beloved by veterans and their families."

"Now that the cross is clearly under federal control, the 9th Circuit agreed that, with regard to this lawsuit, it was time to end the ACLU's protracted legal attack on this symbol dedicated to our nation's fallen heroes," Chandler said.

The comments by Sekulow and Chandler came in response to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling which agreed with the arguments made in a friend-of-the-court brief filed by the ACLJ on behalf of 22 members of Congress. One of those lawmakers was Rep. Duncan Hunter, the California Republican who sponsored legislation transferring control of the Mount Soledad Memorial to the federal government. President Bush signed it into law in August 2006.

"We argued from the start that there was no reason for this case to proceed since the federal government lawfully took ownership of the land on which the memorial sits," Sekulow said January 15, 2007.

In cooperation with the Liberty Legal Institute, the ADF filed an amicus brief of its own on behalf of the American Legion. The court ruling was also praised by San Diego City attorney Michael Aguirre, who called it a "logical decision."

James McElroy, lawyer for Philip Paulson - the war veteran and atheist who sued over the cross in 1989 and passed away in late 2006 - told reporters that the decision was not a total victory for the city since the court left open the issue of how much the government would have to pay McElroy in legal fees.

As Cybercast News Service previously reported, the Mount Soledad case has generated national interest since 1998, when the city sold the property to the Mount Soledad War Memorial Association in an effort to prevent the cross from being torn down as a result of Paulson's suit.

That sale was originally upheld, but later the full panel of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco ruled it unconstitutional and sent the matter back to district court to work out a proper solution to the conflict.

Last May 2006, Federal District Court Judge George Thompson Jr. told the city to remove the cross before August 1, 2006 or face a $5,000-a-day fine. However, Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy issued a stay of that ruling in July 2006.

And in late November, the California Court of Appeals ruled that a 2005 ballot proposition approved by 76 percent of San Diego voters to donate the property on which the Mount Soledad Memorial sits to the federal government was constitutional.

Also on Monday January 15, 2007, Richard Thompson, president and chief counsel for the law center, said he welcomed the ruling but cautioned that "the battle to save the Mt. Soledad veterans memorial is not over."

"The ACLU, displaying its zealous anti-Christian animosity, filed a new lawsuit to remove the Mount Soledad Cross - this time against the federal government," Thompson noted. "We must now turn our resources toward defeating them again."

On the ACLU website, the organization concludes its discussion of the Mount Soledad case by stating: "The American veterans who gave their lives for their country did so under the banner of the American flag, as properly commemorated by the Iwo Jima Memorial, not as crusaders under the banner of the cross."

"As a religious symbol, the Latin cross should be sacred," the ACLU says. "But when politicians and interest groups use the government to promote the cross, they profane it. "Those who truly want the Mt. Soledad Latin cross to be saved - rather than to be used as fodder in culture wars - have a perfectly constitutional option available: move the cross to a prominent, visible, religious site."

Would Queen Gertrude view the ACLU as a bunch of women on this issue? As the Queen who speaks to her son, Prince Hamlet, while watching a play at court states: "the lady doth protest too much, methinks."

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The Seattle Center Monorail was built for the 1962 Seattle World's Fair to provide a crucial link between the fairgrounds and the amenities downtown.

In Las Vegas, a one-track mind since the early '90s began as a joint venture between the MGM Grand and Bally's Hotel. Why not create a one-mile transportation system between the hotels, encouraging visitorship to both?

It was an exciting, forward-thinking idea that took off in 1993 and soon included plans to expand to other locations along the Strip. In 1997, state legislature passed that enabled the private monorail company to own, operate, and charge a fare as a public monorail system. As expansion plans developed, the Monorail assembled a professional team that included Bombardier Transportation, Carter-Burgess, Gensler & Associates, Granite Construction Company, Liaise Corporation, Salomon Smith Barney and Transit Systems Management.

The original monorail system was acquired in 2000 by the nonprofit Las Vegas Monorail Company, formed to develop, own and operate the Las Vegas Monorail. No public money was needed and no future taxpayer money obligation is planned. The Las Vegas Monorail Company board of directors is made up of five members appointed by the Governor of Nevada. Learn about our Board of Directors.

Today, the Las Vegas Monorail remains the first and only privately owned public transportation system in the U.S. and includes seven stations along its four-mile route.

How about Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Diego? Who will rail that there aren't any rails?