Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/18pdf/17-1717_4f14.pdf
Page Number: 81.0

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

15 

GINSBURG,  J., dissenting 

2 
  Reiterating its argument that the Latin cross is a “uni-
versal symbol” of World War I sacrifice, the Commission 
states  that  “40  World  War I monuments . . . built in the 
United  States  . . .  bear  the  shape  of  a  cross.”    Brief  for 
Planning  Commission  8  (citing  App.  1130).    This  figure 
includes  memorials  that  merely  “incorporat[e]”  a  cross.  
App. 1130.15  Moreover, the 40 monuments compose only 
4%  of  the  “948  outdoor  sculptures  commemorating  the 
First World War.”  Ibid.  The Court lists just seven free-
standing cross memorials, ante, at 6, n. 10, less than 1% of 
the  total  number  of  monuments  to  World  War  I  in  the 
United States, see App. 1130.  Cross memorials, in short, 
are outliers.  The overwhelming majority of World War I 
memorials contain no Latin cross. 
  In fact, the “most popular and enduring memorial of the 
[post-World  War  I]  decade”  was  “[t]he  mass-produced 
Spirit of the American Doughboy statue.”  Budreau, Bodies 
of  War,  at  139.    That  statue,  depicting  a  U. S.  infantry-
man, “met with widespread approval throughout Ameri-
can  communities.”    Ibid.    Indeed,  the  first  memorial  to 
World War I erected in Prince George’s County “depict[s] a 
doughboy.”  App. 110–111.  The Peace Cross, as Plaintiffs’ 
expert historian observed, was an “aberration . . . even in 
the era [in which] it was built and dedicated.”  Id., at 123. 
  Like  cities  and  towns  across  the  country,  the  United 
States military comprehended the importance of “pay[ing] 
equal  respect  to  all  members  of  the  Armed  Forces who 
perished in the service of our country,” Buono, 559 U. S., 
at  759  (Stevens,  J.,  dissenting),  and  therefore  avoided 
—————— 

headstones, see ABMC, Flanders Field American Cemetery and Memo-
rial  Brochure  2,  available  at  https://www.abmc.gov/sites/default/ 
files/publications/Flanders%20Field_Brochure_Mar2018.pdf. 

15 No  other  monument  in  Bladensburg’s  V eterans  Memorial  Park 
displays the Latin cross.  For examples of monuments in the Park, see 
the Appendix, infra, at 20–21.