SAN DIEGO, July 8 (UPI) -- The U.S. Supreme Court Friday delayed the removal of a cross on San Diego public land until legal appeals in the state and federal courts are resolved.
Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, acting on an emergency request filed by the city, also hinted that the high court might hear the case when the appeals are completed, the Los Angeles Times said.
He added that the Supreme Court might be influenced by the fact that Congress has passed legislation permitting the cross to be designated a national war memorial.
The city had been facing an Aug. 2 deadline to remove the 43-foot-high cross atop Mount Soledad or pay $5,000 a day in fines, the Times said.
After 17 years of litigation between the city and an atheist who objects to the cross, a federal judge in May found the cross violated the constitutional separation of church and state, and ordered it removed.
San Diego voters have twice voted to keep the cross, but the courts have struck down a sale of the public property beneath it as rigged in favor of groups promising to retain the cross, the newspaper said. An appeal on that issue is pending.
