Judge rejects giant cross in public park

NORFOLK, Va., July 2 (UPI) -- A Christian group's effort to display a 12-foot-tall cross in a Chesapeake, Va., city park goes beyond a right to free speech, a federal judge has ruled.

The Fourth of July display was first blocked by officials on safety grounds. U.S. District Judge Robert G. Doumar agreed the height restriction was justified and denied an injunction request from Christian Rights Ministries, the Norfolk Virginian-Pilot reported Wednesday.

"This is not suppression of speech -- it's clearly a case of how loud that speech can be," Doumar said. "I don't see anything wrong with the 8-foot regulation."

The Christian group has vowed to continue the legal fight.

"We're doing this to validate the violation of past rights," said their attorney, Jonathan Scruggs, who works for the Arizona-based Alliance Defense Fund, a conservative response to the American Civil Liberties Union.