The Jewish Coalition for Religious Liberty recently filed a friend of the court brief in support of the seemingly unlikeliest of causes — preserving the Bladensburg Peace Cross. The Peace Cross is a 93-year-old memorial dedicated to American soldiers killed during World War I. The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals recently held that the cross must be removed from public property. Unless it is reversed by the Supreme Court, this decision could threaten memorials across the United States — including crosses on gravestones in Arlington National Cemetery. The American Jewish community ought to defend the Bladensburg cross, both out of solidarity with our Christian neighbors and because doing so is vital to Jewish interests too.
The Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in this case on February 27, 2019: The case is named The American Legion v. American Humanist Association. The plaintiffs argue that Maryland must either deface the Bladensburg monument or remove it from public property, simply because it is shaped like a cross. They maintain that the First Amendment prohibits any government action that endorses religion, and that allowing a cross to remain on public property amounts to such an endorsement. This misinterpretation of the First Amendment has no basis in the Constitution’s text, and it threatens all religious Americans, especially religious minorities.
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