Pensacola Cross Victory Won’t be Affected by Bladensburg Decision, Atheists Argue
For Immediate Release
Contact: Jennifer Bardi, (202) 238-9088, jbardi@americanhumanist.org
(Washington, D.C., August 23, 2019) – Today’s American Humanist Association filing at the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals defends the earlier victory against the Bayview Cross, a prominent religious symbol located in a popular community park in Pensacola, Florida.
“The fragmented Bladensburg cross decision has no impact on the Eleventh Circuit’s ruling in our favor on the Bayview cross,” explains Monica Miller, AHA’s legal director and senior counsel and lead counsel on the case. “Nothing in the Bladensburg case supports the government’s display of a Latin cross for exclusively religious purposes.”
In June 2019, the Supreme Court upheld the Bladensburg cross in a Washington, D.C. suburb because it concluded that the cross held an overwhelming secular purpose and meaning, directly linked to the cross’ unique association with World War I. However, the Bayview Park cross in Pensacola, FL, has no such connection and holds no secular purpose. Rather, the 34-foot tall symbol serves solely as the centerpiece of annual Easter Sunrise Christian services and obviously prioritizes Christian faith over other faiths and philosophies.
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The American Humanist Association (AHA) works to protect the rights of humanists, atheists, and other nontheistic Americans. The AHA advances the ethical and life-affirming worldview of humanism, which—without beliefs in gods or other supernatural forces—encourages individuals to live informed and meaningful lives that aspire to the greater good of humanity.
Special thanks to the Louis J. Appignani Foundation and the Herb Block Foundation for their support of the Appignani Humanist Legal Center