Fringe sect's lawsuit delays WWII soldiers' monument

Pleasant Grove, USA - A Utah religion whose followers practice mummification is at the center of a U.S. Supreme Court case that is delaying a permanent home for a World War II monument honoring fallen American servicemen.

Because the case centers on the constitutionality of erecting a donated religious monument on city property, the Army has backed off deciding whether to accept, and where to permanently place, a memorial to 40 U.S. troops who perished in a 1943 plane crash in Australia.

The service said it will wait before accepting any donated marker to see whether the city of Pleasant Grove, Utah, must allow the spiritual group Summum's monument in a city park.

It's unclear what position the Supreme Court will take. As a result, the delay means there is no chance for an Army decision by the crash's 65th anniversary on June 14. Shortly after takeoff on that date in 1943, the ill-fated troop transport crashed at Bakers Creek in Queensland, Australia. Forty servicemen aboard died, while just one survived.

The crash's cause is unknown.