Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/18pdf/17-1717_4f14.pdf
Page Number: 82

16 

AMERICAN LEGION  v. AMERICAN HUMANIST ASSN. 

GINSBURG,  J., dissenting 

incorporating  the  Latin  cross  into memorials.  The con-
struction of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier is illustra-
tive.  When a proposal to place a cross on the Tomb was 
advanced,  the  Jewish  Welfare  Board  objected;  no  cross 
appears on the Tomb.  See App. 167.  In sum, “[t]here is 
simply  ‘no  evidence  . . .  that  the  cross  has  been  widely 
embraced  by’—or  even  applied  to—‘non-Christians  as  a 
secular symbol of death’ or of sacrifice in military service” 
in World War I or otherwise.  Trunk v. San Diego, 629 F. 
3d 1099, 1116 (CA9 2011). 

D 
  Holding  the  Commission’s  display  of  the Peace Cross 
unconstitutional  would  not,  as  the  Commission  fears, 
“inevitably require the destruction of other cross-shaped 
memorials  throughout  the  country.”    Brief for Planning 
Commission  52.    When  a  religious  symbol  appears  in  a 
public  cemetery—on  a  headstone,  or  as  the  headstone 
itself, or perhaps integrated into a larger memorial—the 
setting counters the inference that the government seeks 
“either  to  adopt  the religious message or to urge its ac-
ceptance by others.”  Van Orden, 545 U. S., at 737 (Souter, 
J., dissenting).  In a cemetery, the “privately selected re- 
ligious symbols on individual graves are best understood as 
the private speech of each veteran.”  Laycock, Government-
Sponsored  Religious  Displays:  Transparent  Rational- 
izations  and  Expedient  Post-Modernism,  61  Case  W. 
Res.  L.  Rev.  1211,  1242  (2011).    See  also  Summum,  555 
U. S., at 487 (Souter, J., concurring in judgment) (“[T]here 
are  circumstances  in  which government maintenance of 
monuments does not look like government speech at all.  
Sectarian identifications on markers in Arlington Ceme-
tery  come  to  mind.”).    Such displays are “linked to, and 
sho[w]  respect  for,  the  individual  honoree’s  faith  and 
beliefs.”    Buono,  559  U. S.,  at  749,  n.  8  (Stevens,  J.,  dis-
senting).  They do not suggest governmental endorsement