Freethought & Rationalism Archive

Bill · 06-27-2002, 07:02 PM

Phil Paulson has won another round in his battle with the City of San Diego over the Mt. Soledad cross. The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals <a href="http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/data2/circs/9th/0055406pv2.pdf" target="_blank">ruled yesterday, June 26, 2002</a> that the sale of a small plot of land around the cross to a private group was illegal. The court said:

Quote:

This appeal is the latest chapter in a protracted saga centered around a 43-foot-high Latin cross that stands atop Mt. Soledad in San Diego, California. In an earlier chapter, we held that the presence of the cross in a publicly owned park violates the California Constitution, and we therefore affirmed an injunction forbidding the city from maintaining the cross on public land. In this chapter, we hold that the way in which the City of San Diego sold the cross to a private entity, which now maintains the cross, also violates the California Constitution. Because both the constitutional infirmity and the injunction remain in place, we return the case to the district court to write the next installment.

Phil has been conducting this battle for a decade now, and the cross still stands on top of the mountain. This is a really hard case because San Diego is the home of lots of right-wing religious bigots.

== Bill

Bill · 06-27-2002, 07:14 PM

By the way, the above decision was an en banc decision of the 9th Circuit. Four judges dissented, meaning that seven judges voted in favor.

Quote:

Before: Mary M. Schroeder, Chief Judge, and Harry Pregerson, Alex Kozinski, Ferdinand F. Fernandez, Pamela Ann Rymer, Thomas G. Nelson, Michael Daly Hawkins, Susan P. Graber, William A. Fletcher, Marsha S. Berzon, and Johnnie B. Rawlinson, Circuit Judges.

...

FERNANDEZ, Circuit Judge, with whom RYMER, T.G.
NELSON, and RAWLINSON, Circuit Judges, join, dissenting:

Note that Fernandez is the same dissenting judge in the Newdow case. I think that this all bodes well for the Newdow case should it go to an en banc court itself.

== Bill

[ June 27, 2002: Message edited by: Bill ]</p>

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