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To: Geoff Altman who wrote (8562)	6/21/2006 9:40:13 PM
From: Proud_Infidel	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 14758

9th Circuit rejects San Diego's appeal to keep cross on city land ap on Riverside Press Enterprise ^ \| 6/21/06 \| Allison Hoffman - ap SAN DIEGO A three-judge federal panel on Wednesday rejected a last-ditch appeal by the city of San Diego to keep a giant cross standing on city property after a 17-year legal tussle. The city is under federal court order to move the 29-foot-tall cross from a La Jolla hilltop before Aug. 2 or face $5,000 daily fines. The failed appeal to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals was intended to stay that order and allow the cross to remain standing until appeals currently pending in state courts can be heard. City Attorney Michael Aguirre said that Wednesday's ruling, issued without comment, "would force us to carry out that order." The fight over the 52-year-old cross began with a lawsuit filed in 1989 by an atheist living in San Diego. U.S. District Court Judge Gordon Thompson Jr. ruled in May that removal of the cross was "long overdue" and invoked his own 1991 opinion ordering the cross taken down to stop the city from displaying an unconstitutional preference for one religion over another. Aguirre, however, said he was scheduled to meet with Mayor Jerry Sanders on Thursday to discuss appealing the case directly to the U.S. Supreme Court. He said that he believes the placement of the cross is unconstitutional, but argued that the city had a duty to exhaust its legal options in order to respect the will of voters who approved a 2005 ballot measure designed to preserve it. "Voters passed the initiative so our obligation now is to try and defend it," Aguirre said. The Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal on behalf of the cross in 2003 after the city tried to sell the property to a private buyer. Federal courts repeatedly blocked the sale, saying the transactions were designed to favor a buyer who would leave the cross in place. The cross was dedicated in 1954 as a memorial to veterans of the Korean War, and a private association maintains a concentric granite-and-brick veterans' memorial on the land surrounding the cross. Sanders has argued that the cross is an integral part of the war memorial and deserves the same exemption to government-maintained religious symbols granted to other war monuments such as Arlington National Cemetery. In recent weeks Sanders has asked President Bush to intervene in the matter, joining a request by U.S. Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Alpine, chair of the House Armed Services Committee. On Wednesday, Sanders issued a statement saying he was disappointed by the appeals court decision, but he reiterated his commitment to obeying the court order and sparing his cash-strapped city from paying any fines. "I have no intention of violating Judge Thompson's order if a resolution cannot be reached by Aug. 1," Sanders said.