A federal appeals court has ruled that an 8-foot cross in the Mojave National Preserve that was originally intended as a war memorial is an unconstitutional endorsement of religion.
The case was brought by the American Civil Liberties Union on behalf of a retired National Park Service employee who objected to the religious symbolism of the steel-pipe structure.
The cross, the subject of constant attack by vandals, was constructed in 1934 by a group of World War I veterans. According to a plaque they placed nearby, the cross was intended as a memorial, but has since attracted Christian worshippers. Congress has declared the site a war memorial.
The cross, on a site known as Sunrise Rock, has been covered in a heavy tarp after a federal judge in Riverside sided with the ACLU in 2002, ruling that the "primary effect of the presence of the cross" was to "advance religion."
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Monday upheld that ruling.
The San Francisco-based appeals court, however, did not indicate whether the cross must be immediately removed — as the ACLU wishes — or whether it can remain covered pending fresh appeals.
The park service did not return calls seeking comment Monday on whether it would ask the 9th Circuit to reconsider, appeal to the Supreme Court or let the opinion stand and remove the cross.
After the cross was constructed about 10 miles south of Interstate 15 between Las Vegas and Barstow, Congress in 1994 declared the 1.6 million-acre area a national preserve under the National Park Service's jurisdiction.
The park service defended the cross in court, saying the outcropping it rests on was being transferred to a local Veterans of Foreign Wars post in exchange for five acres of privately held land near the preserve.
The government told the court that the pending land transfer mooted the case. But the appeals court said the transfer could take years, meaning that the cross was still on public land.