Atheist Group Loses Lawsuit to Remove Peace Cross

The 40-foot-tall Bladensburg Cross, built as a memorial to soldiers killed in World War I, is not a religious endorsement and may remain on government-owned land, a federal judge has ruled.

Known also as the Peace Cross, the monument sits in a highway median in Prince George’s County, on state land. The American Humanist Association filed the lawsuit in 2014 over the cross, arguing the 91-year-old memorial amounted to government sponsorship of religion in violation of the Constitution’s First Amendment.

But U.S. District Court Judge Deborah K. Chasanow disagreed in a ruling issued Monday, the Associated Press reports. Chasanow said “there is overwhelming evidence in the record showing that the predominant purpose of the monument was for secular commemoration.”

On its website the society wrote in 2014 of the reason for its lawsuit, “When the government erects an exclusively Christian monument on government property, it violates … the Establishment Clause by sending a clear message that Christianity is the preferred religion over all others. When the religious monument is dedicated to fallen soldiers, it sends an even more egregious message that only Christian soldiers are worth memorializing. Non-Christian soldiers such as atheists and humanists are inherently excluded.”

The town of Bladensburg website says the Snyder-Farmer Post of the American Legion of Hyattsville built the cross made of cement and marble to remember the 49 men from Prince George’s County who died in World War I. Their names are listed on the base of the memorial.

The atheist group’s lawyer, Monica Miller, said Judge Chasanow’s ruling doesn’t acknowledge the “stigmatizing effect that the cross has on non-Christian citizens and service members.”

The society expects to decide in the next two weeks whether it will appeal the ruling.

»Photo of Bladensburg Cross courtesy of Town of Bladensburg website