LA MESA : County Makes Legal Move in Cross Case
A day after transferring the Mt. Helix cross to private hands, lawyers for San Diego County on Wednesday dropped their request for a postponement of a judge’s order to tear down the landmark just east of La Mesa.
In a letter to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, Deputy County Counsel Michael Poynor contended that transfer of the 36-foot cross to the nonprofit San Diego Historical Society complies with federal Judge Gordon Thompson Jr.’s ruling that the cross could not remain on public land.
Thompson ruled Dec. 3 that the Mt. Helix cross, the Mt. Soledad cross in La Jolla and the city of La Mesa’s official insignia, which depicts the Mt. Helix cross, violate the state constitution’s prohibition of mixing church and state. He ordered the two monuments removed and the insignia altered by next Tuesday.
The city of San Diego continues to seek a postponement of Thompson’s order to topple the Mt. Soledad cross.
The American Civil Liberties Union contends that the County Board of Supervisors’ decision to transfer the Mt. Helix cross and a small plot of land beneath it is a circumvention of Thompson’s order. Executive Director Linda Hills said Wednesday that the ACLU will go back to court to get Thompson’s ruling enforced.
“They have been scrambling to get around the court order,” Hills said. “This transfer is their plan to get around a founding principal of our country, which is separation of church and state.”
The county will pursue an appeal of Thompson’s ruling, Poynor said.
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