Suit targets cross at Ground Zero

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NEW YORK, July 27 (UPI) -- An atheist group says it has filed suit to remove the "World Trade Center Cross" from the Sept. 11 museum in New York City.

The 20-foot cross, also called the "Ground Zero Cross," is formed by steel beams found in that shape in the wreckage following the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks. It now stands on a pedestal at Ground Zero at the National Sept. 11th Memorial & Museum.

The group, American Atheists, says the cross violates the separation of church and state if it's included in the museum, other philosophies should be represented as well, the Christian Broadcasting Network reported.

"As a public accommodation, the memorial must allow us (and all other religious philosophies) to include our own display of equal size inside the museum, or not include the cross," American Atheists President Dave Silverman said in a release, CBN reported.

"This is another pathetic attempt to rewrite the Constitution and rewrite history by removing a symbol that has deep meaning and serves as a powerful remembrance to that fateful attack nearly 10 years ago," said Jay Sekulow, chief counsel for the conservative American Center for Law and Justice.

Sekulow said the ACLJ is filing a friend of the court brief in the case.