Mount Soledad War Memorial Cross
Steve Trunk, et al. v. United States, et al. Amicus Brief
(defending the San Diego Mt. Soledad Cross against ACLU attack)

admin First Amendment

For many years, there have been efforts to remove the 43-foot tall memorial cross on the war memorial on top of Mount Soledad in San Diego, California, as a purported violation of the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment. CLDEF has been assisting in defending against this attack on the Mt. Soledad Cross for over a decade.

More recently, CLDEF has filed amicus curiae briefs in the U.S. Supreme Court and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, arguing that the Supreme Court’s recent decision upholding legislative prayer in Town of Greece v. Galloway has resulted in the Court abandoning the judge-empowering Lemon test, substituting this for the original jurisdictional test distinguishing those matters that are within the authority of the State and those matters that belong exclusively to God. The Supreme Court denied the petition for certiorari while the case remains pending before the Ninth Circuit.

CLDEF Amicus Curiae Brief in Support of Petition for Certiorari Mount Soledad v. Trunk (June 4, 2014), U.S. Supreme Court

Supreme Court docket sheet

CLDEF Amicus Curiae Brief in Support of Appellants Trunk v. United States (October 22, 2014), U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit