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The U.S. House voted 379-74 Wednesday to approve a bill that would transfer San Diego's Mt. Soledad Veterans Memorial from city hands to the federal government.
The legislation, sponsored in the House by Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., is designed to protect a concrete cross that has stood at the center of the memorial for more than 50 years -- and which has been under legal siege by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) since the late 1980s.
In May, U.S. District Judge Gordon Thompson ordered San Diego to remove the cross by Aug. 2 or face fines of $5,000 a day.
"Removing this landmark would send a message to our nation's veterans that their service and sacrifice has gone unnoticed," Hunter said. "This is the wrong message, especially when so many of our brave men and women are committed to the operational theaters of the global war on terror."
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On July 7, Supreme Court Justice Anthony M. Kennedy put Thompson's decision on hold until the city exhausts all appeals in both state and federal court.
Kennedy suggested at the time that the high court might consider the issue, though it has twice refused to do so.
Keeping the cross in place is the subject of several lawsuits filed by major pro-family groups, San Diego civic groups and members of Congress.
How would transferring ownership of the memorial nullify the judge's decision to remove the cross?
"The entire basis -- even though it’s a false decision -- for dismantling the war memorial and the cross was under the California Constitution," explained Kelly Shackelford of the Liberty Legal Institute -- the attorney for the American Legion, one of the groups that has filed suit. "If the property is changed from being city property to federal property, the California Constitution obviously has no authority over federal property."
Shackelford said the people of San Diego even put the issue to a referendum -- and 76 percent of voters supported giving the memorial to the federal government in order to preserve the cross. However a California state judge invalidated the transfer.
"The only reason why that hasn't happened," Shackelford said, "is because a judge had the gall to say, 'No, I'm not going to respect or follow your vote, because I think it's unconstitutional for you to have this vote, because I think you are trying to be favorable to religion.' "
Richard Thompson, president of the Thomas More Law Center, another group which has defended the cross in court, said the overwhelming support for Hunter's bill demonstrates that the ACLU and what he calls "the liberal judges who support the ACLU’s anti-Christian agenda" are out of touch with America.
"No doubt, the ACLU will return to its liberal judges to try to undo, once again, the democratic process and the will of the people," Thompson said. "However, an effective coalition of veterans groups, political leaders and public-interest organizations is developing to stop them."
An identical bill has been introduced into the Senate, by Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., and efforts are being made to fast track the measure and bring it up before Congress recesses for the summer.
The White House has strongly endorsed the legislation.
"In the face of legal action threatening the continued existence of the current memorial," the administration said in a statement, "the people of San Diego have clearly expressed their desire to keep the Mt. Soledad Veterans Memorial in its present form. Judicial activism should not stand in the way of the people."
Even if the Senate approves the bill and the memorial is transferred to the federal government, it isn't out of the woods, according to Shackelford.
"Obviously, they could then attack the memorial under the federal Constitution," he said. "Then it would simply be a matter of whether the religion clause of the United States Constitution actually demands that we go start ripping crosses and Stars of David off of all of our veterans memorials and military cemeteries."
In the meantime, attorneys plan to pull out all the stops to preserve the war memorial, according to Jay Sekulow, chief council of the American Center for Law and Justice, who represents 22 members of Congress in court.
"At the end of the day," Sekulow said, "whether the solution comes legislatively or judicially, we believe the Mt. Soledad cross will remain in place -- a very visible symbol of our commitment to honoring the men and women who gave their lives for our freedoms."
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(Paid for by Focus on the Family Action.)
