SAN DIEGO COUNTY PERSPECTIVE : Church and State Apart

The city and county of San Diego are up against a hard deadline. They have been ordered by a federal court to remove the prominent crosses from public parkland atop Mt. Soledad and Mt. Helix by March 3 because, the court rightly said, the crosses violate the state Constitution’s principle of separation of church and state.

The federal district court decision has been appealed, but a stay of the original order is needed to allow time for the appeal to be heard. If the stay isn’t granted, the Mt. Soledad cross and a small parcel of land surrounding it will be transferred by the city to a private organization; the county has already done that with the Mt. Helix cross.

Even in “private” hands, the prominent crosses would essentially still be in public parks. In some respects, the act of transferring the crosses to protect them shows greater religious “preference” than the crosses themselves.

The city and the county are trying to find a compromise that meets the requirements of the Constitution while preserving the decades-old landmarks. Although the line between church and state is fuzzy when it comes to such things as public monuments and Nativity displays, this type of compromise violates the spirit of the Constitution. These crosses have deeply rooted connections to Christian worship.

The city argues that the Mt. Soledad cross is a war memorial, but ceremonies for veterans were not held there apparently until a lawsuit was filed challenging the cross. An Easter service is conducted there each year, however, and also on Mt. Helix.

This case should be decided on its merits, not on technicalities. The issue was confounded when another federal judge ruled that a similar cross in San Francisco is constitutional.

We urge the federal appeals court to grant a stay of the removal order. This issue deserves a clean resolution.