BLADENSBURG, Md. (AP) - A group has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to reverse a lower court decision that declared unconstitutional a Maryland veteran’s monument fashioned as a 40-foot-tall (12-meter) cross.
The Washington Post reports the American Legion asked the court Monday to prevent the removal or destruction of the monument.
The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled the Bladensburg monument unconstitutional last year, saying it “excessively entangles the government in religion.”
The monument was completed in 1925 to honor Maryland’s Prince George’s County soldiers who died in World War I.
Owned by the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission, it stands on public land and is maintained with taxpayer money.
A group that espouses the separation of church and state, the American Humanist Association, first challenged the monument’s constitutionality in 2014.
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Information from: The Washington Post, http://www.washingtonpost.com
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