Opinion ID: 173618
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 8

Heading: UHPA's Memorial Crosses Violate the Effect Prong of the Lemon/Endorsement Test

Text: Next, we consider whether the State Defendants violated the second Lemon test. The Establishment Clause mandate[s] governmental neutrality between religion and religion, and between religion and non-religion. Weinbaum, 541 F.3d at 1029 n. 13 (quoting O'Connor, 416 F.3d at 1223). Thus, this court recently observed that [g]overnments may not mak[e] adherence to a religion relevant in any way to a person's standing in the political community. County of Allegheny v. Am. Civil Liberties Union Greater Pittsburgh Chapter, 492 U.S. 573, 594, 109 S.Ct. 3086, 106 L.Ed.2d 472 (1989) (quoting Lynch, 465 U.S. at 687, 104 S.Ct. 1355 (O'Connor, J., concurring)). And actions which have the effect of communicating governmental endorsement or disapproval, whether intentionally or unintentionally, ... make religion relevant, in reality or public perception, to status in the political community. Lynch, 465 U.S. at 692, 104 S.Ct. 1355 (O'Connor, J., concurring). Green, 568 F.3d at 799. When determining whether a display has the impermissible effect of communicating a message of governmental endorsement or disapproval of religion, Green, 568 F.3d at 799, we look[] through the eyes of an objective observer who is aware of the purpose, context, and history of the symbol. The objective or reasonable observer is kin to the fictitious reasonably prudent person of tort law. See Gaylor[ v. United States], 74 F.3d [214,] 217 [(10th Cir. 1996)]. So we presume that the court-created objective observer is aware of information not limited to `the information gleaned simply from viewing the challenged display.' O'Connor, 416 F.3d at 1228 (quoting Wells v. City & County of Denver, 257 F.3d 1132, 1142-43 (10th Cir.2001)). Weinbaum, 541 F.3d at 1031 (emphasis added). While the reasonable observer is presumed to know far more than most actual members of a given community, id. at 1031 n. 16, we do not treat the reasonable observer as omniscient. Green, 568 F.3d at 800 (citing Bauchman, 132 F.3d at 560); see also Buono v. Norton, 371 F.3d 543, 550 (9th Cir.2004) (How much information we will impute to a reasonable observer is unclear.). a. Purpose Separate from Lemon's first test, courts also consider the Government's purpose in undertaking the challenged conduct as illustrative of the effect that that conduct conveys. See Weinbaum, 541 F.3d at 1031, 1033 (noting that [e]ffects are most often the manifestation of a motivating purpose). As previously stated, in this case the UHPA's stated purpose in erecting these memorial crosses, and the State Defendants' purpose in allowing the UHPA to incorporate the UHP symbol into the memorials and to place the crosses on public land, was secular. That fact, however, cannot be dispositive of whether the State has violated the effect prong of the Lemon /endorsement test, or this second prong would be rendered meaningless. Rather, the State's secular purpose is merely one element of the larger factual and historical context that we consider in order to determine whether these memorial crosses would have an impermissible effect on the reasonable observer. b. Context and history[11] Context can determine the permissibility of displays of religious symbols on public property. See Allegheny County, 492 U.S. at 598, 109 S.Ct. 3086 (Under the Court's holding in Lynch, the effect of a crèche display turns on its setting.); Weinbaum, 541 F.3d at 1035 (holding that the city of Las Cruces could use a three-cross symbol as part of its city seal because the context and history of that city establishe[d] that the symbolism is not religious at all. Rather, it simply reflects the name of the City which, in turn, reflects a series of secular events that occurred near the site of the City.). The significance of context is perhaps best illustrated by the Supreme Court's two recent decisions involving displays of the Ten Commandments on public land. In Van Orden v. Perry, 545 U.S. 677, 125 S.Ct. 2854, 162 L.Ed.2d 607 (2005), Justice Breyer, whose concurrence provided the deciding vote, concluded that the display of the Ten Commandments challenged in that case did not violate the Establishment Clause based largely on his analysis of the context of the display, id. at 701, 125 S.Ct. 2854 (Breyer, J. concurring), and his conclusion that the context suggests that the State intended the display's moral message ... to predominate, id. at 702, 125 S.Ct. 2854 (Breyer, J., concurring). In contrast, the majority of the Court found the Decalogue display in McCreary County v. American Civil Liberties Union, 545 U.S. 844, 881, 125 S.Ct. 2722, 162 L.Ed.2d 729 (2005), to be in violation of the Establishment Clause because it was placed there with a religious purpose as evidenced, in part, by the fact that it was initially displayed on its own. Thus, the context of a display can determine its legality. This case involves memorials using a Latin cross, which is unequivocally a symbol of the Christian faith. Weinbaum, 541 F.3d at 1022. In light of that, there is little doubt that Utah would violate the Establishment Clause if it allowed a private group to place a permanent unadorned twelve-foot cross on public property without any contextual or historical elements that served to secularize the message conveyed by such a display. See American Civil Liberties Union v. Rabun County Chamber of Commerce, Inc., 698 F.2d 1098, 1100-01 (11th Cir.1983) (holding that a lighted thirty-five-foot stand-alone cross could not be displayed in a state park); see also County of Allegheny, 492 U.S. at 599, 109 S.Ct. 3086 (using the display of a cross in a central location in a government building on Easter as the prototypical example of a display that would convey government endorsement of Christianity); Buono, 371 F.3d at 544-45 (holding that an eight-foot cross intended as a war memorial and located on land owned by the national government violated the Establishment Clause); cf. Trunk v. City of San Diego, 568 F.Supp.2d 1199, 1202 (S.D.Cal.2008) (holding that a cross that had become a long-standing landmark of the city and was only one part of a larger war memorial could be maintained on federal land). Thus, these displays of the preeminent symbol of Christianity, Buono, 371 F.3d at 545 (citation and quotation omitted), can only be allowed if their context or history avoid the conveyance of a message of governmental endorsement of religion. Here, we conclude that the cross memorials would convey to a reasonable observer that the state of Utah is endorsing Christianity. The memorials use the preeminent symbol of Christianity, and they do so standing alone (as opposed to it being part of some sort of display involving other symbols). That cross conspicuously bears the imprimatur of a state entity, the UHP, and is found primarily on public land. [12] The fact that the cross includes biographical information about the fallen trooper does not diminish the governmental message endorsing Christianity. This is especially true because a motorist driving by one of the memorial crosses at 55-plus miles per hour may not notice, and certainly would not focus on, the biographical information. The motorist, however, is bound to notice the preeminent symbol of Christianity and the UHP insignia, linking the State to that religious sign. Moreover, the fact that all of the fallen UHP troopers are memorialized with a Christian symbol conveys the message that there is some connection between the UHP and Christianity. This may lead the reasonable observer to fear that Christians are likely to receive preferential treatment from the UHPboth in their hiring practices and, more generally, in the treatment that people may expect to receive on Utah's highways. [13] The reasonable observer's fear of unequal treatment would likely be compounded by the fact that these memorials carry the same symbol that appears on UHP patrol vehicles. See Friedman v. Bd. of County Comm'rs of Bernalillo County, 781 F.2d 777, 778, 782 (10th Cir.1985) (holding that a city's seal bearing, among other things, a latin cross and the Spanish motto, `CON ESTA VENCEMOS' [`With This We Conquer'], violated the Establishment Clause in part because [a] person approached by officers leaving a patrol car emblazoned with this seal could reasonably assume that the officers were Christian police. ... A follower of any non-Christian religion might well question the officers' ability to provide even-handed treatment. A citizen with no strong religious conviction might conclude that secular benefit could be obtained by becoming a Christian.). And the significant size of the cross would only heighten this concern. Defendants point to four contextualizing facts that, they argue, render these cross memorials sufficiently secular to pass constitutional muster: (1) these displays are clearly intended as memorials; (2) they are located in areas where similar memorials have long been displayed; (3) many of the designers and producers of these displays do not revere the cross as a symbol of their faith; and (4) a majority of Utahns do not revere the cross as a symbol of their faith. Although we agree that some of these contextual elements may help reduce the message of religious endorsement conveyed by these displays, we think that these displays nonetheless have the impermissible effect of conveying to the reasonable observer that the State prefers or otherwise endorses Christianity. i. These Displays are Clearly Intended as Memorials Defendants argue that the placement of these displays, in combination with the troopers' names emblazoned on the crosses and the biographical information included in these displays, clearly conveys the message, instead, that these crosses are designed as memorials and, therefore, that they do not convey a message of religious endorsement. We agree that a reasonable observer would recognize these memorial crosses as symbols of death. However, we do not agree that this nullifies their religious sectarian content because a memorial cross is not a generic symbol of death; it is a Christian symbol of death that signifies or memorializes the death of a Christian. The parties agree that a cross was traditionally a Christian symbol of death and, despite Defendants' assertions to the contrary, there is no evidence in the record that the cross has been universally embraced as a marker for the burial sites of non-Christians or as a memorial for a non-Christian's death. The UHPA acknowledges that when it asserts that it would honor the request made by a Jewish state trooper's family to memorialize him with a Star of David rather than a cross. The State Defendants point to the use of crosses as markers for fallen soldiers as evidence that the cross has become a secular symbol of death. However, the evidence in the record shows that the military provides soldiers and their families with a number of different religious symbols that they may use on government-issued headstones or markers. Even in the American military cemeteries overseas, which include rows and rows of white crosses, fallen Jewish service members are memorialized instead with a Star of David. Thus, while the cross may be a common symbol used in markers and memorials, there is no evidence that it is widely accepted as a secular symbol. Defendants and some of the amici urge this court to treat memorial crosses in much the same way as the Supreme Court has treated Christmas trees and historical displays that include depictions of the Ten Commandments. These arguments are unpersuasive. Courts have consistently treated Christmas as both a religious and secular holiday, and many courts have cited Justice Blackmun's statement that [a]lthough Christmas trees once carried religious connotations, today they typify the secular celebration of Christmas. County of Allegheny, 492 U.S. at 616, 109 S.Ct. 3086 (Blackmun, J., concurring); see, e.g., Adland v. Russ, 307 F.3d 471, 485 (6th Cir.2002); American Civil Liberties Union v. Schundler, 104 F.3d 1435, 1442 (3rd Cir.1997). Unlike Christmas, which has been widely embraced as a secular holiday, however, there is no evidence in this case that the cross has been widely embraced by non-Christians as a secular symbol of death. We cannot, therefore, conclude that the crosswhich has a long history as a predominantly religious symbolconveys in this context a secular meaning that can be divorced from its religious significance. Compare Weinbaum, 541 F.3d at 1034 (concluding that the city of Las Cruces's use of a three-cross symbol did not violate the Establishment Clause at least in part because symbols containing multiple crosses identify many secular businesses with the Las Cruces community), with Koenick v. Felton, 190 F.3d 259, 266 n. 7 (4th Cir.1999) (rejecting the argument that Easter, like Christmas, had been embraced as a secular holiday because the record [wa]s devoid of evidence that there was a significant number of persons for whom the holiday has no religious significance but who nonetheless celebrate the occasion in some manner). Similarly, the memorial crosses at issue here cannot be meaningfully compared to the Ten Commandments display that the Supreme Court upheld in Van Orden. The display at issue in Van Orden was part of a historical presentation of various legal and cultural texts and, in that context, the nonreligious aspects of the tablets' message [] predominate[d] over any religious purpose or effect. 545 U.S. at 701, 125 S.Ct. 2854 (Breyer, J., concurring). In this case, on the other hand, the crosses stand alone, adorned with the state highway patrol insignia and some information about the trooper who died there.