Orlando, FL – In twenty-one short days, Mat Staver, President and General Counsel of Liberty Counsel, will present oral arguments before the United States Supreme Court in the case of McCreary County v. ACLU of Kentucky. In short, this case concerns whether government may acknowledge religion and have religious symbols and references on publicly owned property. Liberty Counsel is a nonprofit litigation, education, and policy organization dedicated to advancing religious liberty, the sanctity of human life and the traditional family.

Numerous organizations have written amicus briefs in support of the Petitioner’s position in McCreary, but one of the more compelling briefs was written by the American Legion. The American Legion’s brief points out that “religious imagery is an important part of American military culture” and states concern that an adverse ruling in McCreary could require the removal of religious symbols from thousands of war memorials on public property.

Amazingly, a few courts have already ordered the removal of crosses from war memorials. In 2004, a federal Court in Oregon ordered the removal of a cross placed in a public park in 1934 by the Veteran’s of Foreign Wars in memory of those who died in World War I. The American Legion Brief pleads: “Those who came before died for a reason. It is not sufficient to cast their sacrifice upon a trash heap of history by refusing to give eternal significance to the brutality inflicted by war upon generations.” Thousands of Americans who paid the ultimate sacrifice for the freedom all Americans enjoy do not deserve to have their memorials desecrated. If the ACLU’s arguments are accepted, war memorials could be sandblasted until no trace of religion remained. The Arlington National Cemetery could be stripped of the white crosses which symbolize sacrifice, honor, and patriotism for so many. The Tomb of the Unknowns would no longer read “Here Rests In Honored Glory An American Known But to God.” The brief also relies on a recent Supreme Court decision in which Justice O’Connor stated, “[i]t is unsurprising that a Nation founded by religious refuges and dedicated to religious freedom should find references to divinity in its symbols, songs, mottos, and oaths. Eradicating such references would sever ties to a history that sustains this Nation even today.”

Mat Staver commented, “Government acknowledgement is different from government endorsement of religion. The religious symbols and sayings that stand watch over the cemeteries for our veterans are there because we are a religious people and have a religious heritage. But, those memorials are in danger of being sandblasted if the ACLU’s arguments prevail in McCreary. This case is about more than the Ten Commandments, American should be able to acknowledge religion in a courthouse, a national monument, or a war memorial.”