The Supreme Court heard oral argument Wednesday in a case challenging the constitutionality of a World War I memorial in Bladensburg, Maryland.
In American Legion v. American Humanist Association, the Supreme Court will weigh in on whether a state's maintenance of a 93-year-old World War I memorial that includes a 40-foot cross—known as the Peace Cross—is an "establishment of religion" in violation of the First Amendment.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit held that the Peace Cross violates the establishment clause, concluding that the size and prominence of the cross convey government endorsement of Christianity and the state's maintenance of the cross is an excessive entanglement with religion. One of the judges went so far as to suggest a way to "fix" the establishment clause problem would be to cut off the arms of the cross.
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