Paulson

In 1954 the City of San Diego (City) permitted a private veterans group to construct and thereafter maintain a large Latin cross (the cross) on city parkland at the top of Mount Soledad. In 1991 the United States District Court for the Southern District of California held that because a Latin cross is the preeminent symbol of Christianity, its placement on Mount Soledad violates California’s prohibition against preference of a religion. The court granted a permanent injunction forbidding the presence of the cross and gave the City three months to comply with its order. What followed were two attempts by the City to divest itself first of the cross, then of the cross and part of the land on which it sits. Those efforts were found by federal courts to run afoul of article I, section 4 (the no preference clause) and article XVI, section 5 (the no aid to religion clause) of the California Constitution.

In December 2004 the United States Congress passed legislation (Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2005, Pub.L. No. 108-447, Div. J., § 116 (Dec. 8, 2004) 118 Stat. 2809 (hereafter Public Law No. 108-447 ), declaring that upon donation of the Mount Soledad site to the federal…