WASHINGTON (AP) - The Supreme Court seems inclined to rule that a 40-foot-tall cross that stands on public land in Maryland is constitutional, but shy away from a sweeping ruling.
The high court on Wednesday heard over an hour of arguments in the case about the World War I memorial sometimes referred to as the "Peace Cross." Conservative justices as well as at least two liberal justices seemed to suggest that the nearly 100-year-old memorial doesn't run afoul of the First Amendment's establishment clause. The justices seemed inclined to find that the age of the monument and the cross' special connection to World War I as a symbol associated with war dead made it acceptable.
The memorial stands on a grassy highway median in Bladensburg, Maryland, just outside Washington.
