What exactly does the cross stand for, and who gets to decide?
The Supreme Court will wrestle with the question on Wednesday morning when it hears oral arguments in American Legion v. American Humanity Association. The case is ostensibly about a World War I monument in suburban Maryland that's shaped like a four-story crucifix. What the justices will ultimately decide is how much latitude the government should get in showing favoritism toward particular faiths. Running through the dispute is a familiar question at this moment in American politics: How should a country grapple with the symbols of its turbulent history?
At issue in the case itself is a 40-foot concrete Latin cross that stands in the traffic island of a Maryland highway between Washington, D.C., and Baltimore. Community leaders in Bladensburg, Maryland, erected it in 1925 as a memorial to local soldiers who had died during the first World War. In 1961, the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission acquired both the cross and the sliver of land upon which it rests. State officials cited concerns about the cross's impact on traffic visibility when they assumed responsibility for it, and taxpayers have paid for its maintenance and care ever since.
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