(NBC)
The Supreme Court ruled Thursday that a huge concrete cross can stay on public land in suburban Washington, rejecting a claim that its presence is an unconstitutional government endorsement of religion.
By a 7-2 vote, the court said such monuments are essentially historic, not religious, a ruling that potentially extended protection to hundreds of similar tributes nationwide.
"With sufficient time, religiously expressive monuments, symbols, and practices can become embedded features of a community's landscape and identity," Justice Samuel Alito wrote. "The cross is undoubtedly a Christian symbol, but that fact should not blind us to everything else that the Bladensburg cross has come to represent."
The decision was a victory for defenders of the Peace Cross, a 40-foot-tall structure that has stood for more than 90 years in Bladensburg, Maryland. It was built with private funds to honor 49 servicemen from the region who died in World War I. A state parks commission took it over in 1961 to provide for its maintenance, and it now sits in the middle of a busy traffic interchange. Read more