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AMERICAN LEGION v. AMERICAN HUMANIST ASSN. 

Opinion of the Court 

arms.  The Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit agreed 
that the memorial is unconstitutional and remanded for a 
determination of the proper remedy.  We now reverse. 
  Although  the  cross  has  long  been  a  preeminent  Chris-
tian  symbol,  its  use  in  the  Bladensburg  memorial  has  a 
special  significance.    After  the  First  World  War,  the  pic-
ture  of  row  after  row  of  plain  white  crosses  marking  the 
overseas graves of soldiers who had lost their lives in that 
horrible  conflict  was  emblazoned  on  the  minds  of  Ameri-
cans  at  home,  and  the  adoption  of  the  cross  as  the 
Bladensburg  memorial  must  be  viewed  in  that  historical 
context.  For nearly a century, the Bladensburg Cross has 
expressed  the  community’s  grief  at  the  loss  of  the  young 
men  who  perished,  its  thanks  for  their  sacrifice,  and  its 
dedication  to  the  ideals  for  which  they  fought.    It  has 
become a prominent community landmark, and its removal 
or  radical  alteration  at  this  date  would  be  seen  by  many 
not as a neutral act but as the manifestation of “a hostility 
toward  religion  that  has  no  place  in  our  Establishment 
Clause traditions.”  Van Orden v. Perry, 545 U. S. 677, 704 
(2005)  (BREYER,  J.,  concurring  in  judgment).    And  con- 
trary  to  respondents’  intimations,  there  is  no  evidence  of 
discriminatory  intent  in  the  selection  of  the  design  of  the 
memorial  or  the  decision  of  a  Maryland  commission  to 
maintain it.  The Religion Clauses of the Constitution aim 
to  foster  a  society  in  which  people  of  all  beliefs  can  live 
together  harmoniously,  and  the  presence  of  the  Bladens-
burg  Cross  on  the  land  where  it  has  stood  for  so  many 
years is fully consistent with that aim. 

I 
A 
  The cross came into widespread use as a symbol of Chris-
tianity by the fourth century,1 and it retains that meaning 
today.    But  there  are  many  contexts  in  which  the  symbol 

—————— 

1 B. Longenecker, The Cross Before Constantine: The Early Life of a 

Christian Symbol 2 (2015).