Here we go again

Another challenge to the Mt. Soledad cross by the ACLU.

Or….the one already won is being argued again. Of course, it involves the Ninth Circuit.

Arguing that removing the memorial would cause “real, irreparable harm” to war heroes and their families, the Thomas More Law Center has filed a brief opposing a legal challenge to the constitutionality of California’s historic Mt. Soledad cross which honors veterans of the U.S. armed forces. Over 2,100 plaques honoring individuals or groups of veterans are displayed near the Mt. Soledad cross, which is the centerpiece of the veterans’ memorial. Some of the plaques display Stars of David in honor of Jewish veterans. A large American flag flies at the memorial’s base.

This battle goes back several years, when an activist atheist decided he was offended by looking at the cross in this venerable war memorial that has long been a ‘sacred’ site to generations of service people .

The brief was filed on behalf of former Navy pilot and prisoner of war Rear Admiral Jeremiah Denton (Ret.) and the families of Marine Majors Michael D. Martino and Gerald Bloomfield, III, who were both killed in Iraq in November 2005 when their attack helicopter was shot down.

All three have had plaques in their honor placed under the Mt. Soledad cross.

Rear Admiral Denton, a former U.S. Senator from Alabama, came to national prominence during a television interview arranged by his North Vietnamese captors in 1966. Denton affirmed his support for the United States while blinking his eyes in Morse Code, repeatedly spelling out the message “TORTURE.”

Denton was himself tortured and was the first American military captive to be subjected to four years of solitary confinement, the Law Center reports. He was released from captivity in 1973.

In May 2006, Major Martino and Major Bloomfield’s unit, having recently returned from Iraq, sponsored a plaque dedication ceremony at the memorial to commemorate the fallen Marines’ service. According to the Law Center, more than 300 Marines stood in line for over three hours to meet the Marines’ families and to pay respect to their fallen comrades.

The Law Center argued that the cross conveys “an unmistakably American message of patriotism and self-sacrifice” and does not “establish” Christianity as a national religion.

Thank God for Thomas More.