Mount Soledad Cross Land-Transfer Bill Goes To Bush

SAN DIEGO -- The fate of the Mount Soledad cross, the subject of a 17- year legal battle over the constitutionality of a religious symbol on public land, lies in the hands of President Bush Wednesday.

The U.S. Senate yesterday unanimously approved a bill that would transfer the land upon which the Mount Soledad cross sits to the federal government to be preserved as a national war memorial.

The House last month overwhelmingly approved similar legislation, which also seeks to have the cross managed by the secretary of defense.

The bill now goes to the president, who has said he would sign it.

"This has been an extraordinary battle that many have waged to fulfil the wishes of the vast majority of San Diegans, the families of our military heroes and all who believe in the value of history," Mayor Jerry Sanders said.

The legal battle has been waged over the constitutionality of having a cross on city-owned property. The original lawsuit was brought by atheist Phillip Paulson in 1989.

James McElroy, Paulson's attorney, could not be reached for comment yesterday.

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy agreed to intervene in the case last month, issuing a stay of a federal judge's ruling ordering the city to remove the cross by Wednesday or face fines of $5,000 per day.

Three years ago, the Supreme Court refused to consider the dispute.

Judges have twice ruled that the sale of the land surrounding the memorial to the Mount Soledad Memorial Association was unconstitutional.

The group maintains the site along with hundreds of plaques that pay tribute to veterans of foreign wars.

In a special election last summer, 75 percent of San Diegans cast ballots in favor of Proposition A, which allowed the city to transfer the cross and the land it sits on to the National Park Service and to designate it as a national war memorial.

A Superior Court judge subsequently ruled that the ballot measure was invalid and unenforceable because it gave preferential treatment to one religion over another. An appeal is pending.

A three-judge panel of the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals denied the city's request to hold off on Thompson's order to remove the cross but agreed to hear arguments on a full appeal of the case in October.

The cross was erected in 1954 as a memorial to veterans of the Korean War.