Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/18pdf/17-1717_4f14.pdf
Page Number: 69.0

Cite as:  588 U. S. ____ (2019) 

3 

GINSBURG,  J., dissenting 

infra, at 10–11, n. 10.  Just as a Star of David is not suit- 
able to honor Christians who died serving their country, so 
a cross is not suitable to honor those of other faiths who 
died  defending  their  nation.    Soldiers  of  all  faiths  “are 
united by their love of country, but they are not united by 
the cross.”  Brief for Jewish War Veterans of the United 
States  of  America,  Inc.,  as  Amicus  Curiae  3  (Brief  for 
Amicus Jewish War Veterans). 
  By  maintaining  the  Peace  Cross  on a public highway, 
the  Commission  elevates  Christianity over other faiths, 
and religion over nonreligion.  Memorializing the service 
of American soldiers is an “admirable and unquestionably 
secular” objective.  Van Orden v. Perry, 545 U. S. 677, 715 
(2005) (Stevens, J., dissenting).  But the Commission does 
not serve that objective by displaying a symbol that bears 
“a starkly sectarian message.”  Salazar v. Buono, 559 U. S. 
700, 736 (2010) (Stevens, J., dissenting). 

I 
A 
  The First Amendment commands that the government 
“shall make no law” either “respecting an establishment of 
religion”  or  “prohibiting  the free exercise thereof.”  See 
Everson, 330 U. S., at 15.  Adoption of these complemen-
tary provisions followed centuries of “turmoil, civil strife, 
and persecutio[n], generated in large part by established 
sects determined to maintain their absolute political and 
religious supremacy.”  Id, at 8–9.  Mindful of that history, 
the fledgling Republic ratified the Establishment Clause, 
in  the  words  of  Thomas  Jefferson,  to  “buil[d]  a  wall  of 
separation between church and state.”  Draft Reply to the 
Danbury  Baptist  Association,  in  36  Papers  of  Thomas 
Jefferson 254, 255 (B. Oberg ed. 2009) (footnote omitted). 
  This barrier “protect[s] the integrity of individual con-
science in religious matters.” McCreary County v. Ameri-
can Civil Liberties Union of Ky., 545 U. S. 844, 876 (2005).