Topic category:  Other/General

The American Civil Liberties Union, that bastion of secular extremism, is fighting hard to bring down the Mt. Soledad Memorial Cross (part of the veterans memorial in San Diego, California built in 1954 as a memorial to veterans of the Korean War). As usual, the ACLU is not about to let the truth, America's religious history or constitutional intent get in its way as it backs atheist Philip Paulson, who brought a lawsuit in 1989 to force removal of an object that is anathema to Satan, Osama bin Laden and him (among others).

On July 19, 2006, the House of Representatives, the legislative body closest to the people, passed a bill (H.R. 5863) to transfer ownership of the veterans memorial to the federal government, 349 to 74.

Congressman Duncan Hunter, Republican of California representing the people of San Diego: "Today's vote is promising news in the effort to preserve the Mount Soledad Veterans Memorial and brings us one step closer to permanently securing this historic landmark's place in San Diego County."

Richard Thompson, President and Chief Counsel for the Thomas More Law Center: "The overwhelming support for this bill demonstrates that the ACLU and the liberal judges who support the ACLU's anti-Christian agenda are out of touch with America. No doubt, the ACLU will return to its liberal judges to try to undo, once again, the democratic process and the will of the people. However, an effective coalition of veterans groups, political leaders, and public interest organizations is developing to stop them."

President Bush issued a "Statement of Administration Policy" "strongly" supporting H.R. 5683 and stating in part: "In the face of legal action threatening the continued existence of the current Memorial, the people of San Diego have clearly expressed their desire to keep the Mt. Soledad Veterans Memorial in its present form. Judicial activism should not stand in the way of the people, and the Administration commends Rep. Hunter for his efforts in introducing this bill."

Charles LiMandri, the west coast director of the Thomas More Law Center, emphasized the national significance of the case: "This case is one that should concern all Americans. It is a direct attack on our national heritage, and it is an attack that is occurring on our own soil. The ACLU and its minions, with the help of activist judges, seek to destroy what our Founding Fathers created-One Nation Under God."

Senator Jeff Sessions, Republican of Alabama, introduced a Senate bill identical to H. R. 5683. it should be passed swiftly.

ACLU lies must be exposed, so that they do not give Senators an excuse to stall.

Examples: In a letter to the House of Representatives opposing H.R. 5683, the ACLU misstated important facts and misrepresented the law.

ACLU lie: "service members are unable to choose their symbols when, as in Mt. Soledad, the government erects a 43-foot Latin cross upon public property."

Fact: the memorial cross was erected by a private organization; many family members, friends, and comrades of those buried there honored their dead by placing nearly 2,000 memorial plaques at the foot of the cross; and many of the plaques contain the Star of David, honoring fallen Jewish veterans.

ACLU lie: "Chief Justice Rehnquist, Justice Scalia, and Justice White joined Justice Kennedy in noting that Latin crosses on government property violate the Constitution."

Fact: The ACLU's basis for that specious claim is dicta in a dissent written by Justice Kennedy in which he hypothetically claimed that the Establishment Clause would forbid "a city to permit the permanent erection of a large Latin cross on the roof of city hall." Unsurprisingly, the ACLU chose not to note that Justice Kennedy was dissenting from a decision in which liberal, activist justices held that it was unconstitutional for the government to display a Nativity scene at a county courthouse. In his dissent, Justice Kennedy stated that the ACLU-backed majority decision to remove the display "reflects an unjustified hostility toward religion, a hostility inconsistent with our history and our precedents." Significantly, it was Justice Kennedy who recently issued the stay to prevent the removal of the memorial cross until all of the legal appeals had been exhausted.

Robert Muise, a Thomas More Law Center trial attorney working on this case, ridiculed the ACLU's malignant misrepresentation: "Any first-year law student knows that dicta is not the law, particularly dicta from a dissenting opinion that does not directly address the legal issue at stake. The ACLU's misrepresentations may work on activist judges, but they are not fooling the American public or Congress. This case is plainly exposing the ACLU's anti-Christian agenda."

The good news is that earlier this year Justice Samuel A. Alito, Jr. replaced Justice Sandra Day O'Connor. That development appears to have resulted in the United States Supreme Court's recent intervention in the long legal battle over the constitutionality of having the Mt. Soledad Cross (a Latin cross) on city-owned land: Justice Kennedy issuing a stay of a federal judge's ruling ordering the City of San Diego to remove the Cross by August1 or face fines of $5,000 per day. Three years ago, the United States Supreme Court refused to consider the dispute.

Voters, take note of how your representative voted, demand that your Senators act immediately to save the Cross, and go to the polls and show those who want to bring down the Cross that, in America, "one nation, under God," God's people, not the secular extremists, are the boss and what is good for America is the ACLU's loss.

Michael J. Gaynor

Biography - Michael J. Gaynor

Michael J. Gaynor has been practicing law in New York since 1973. A former partner at Fulton, Duncombe & Rowe and Gaynor & Bass, he is a solo practitioner admitted to practice in New York state and federal courts and an Association of the Bar of the City of New York member.

Gaynor graduated magna cum laude, with Honors in Social Science, from Hofstra University's New College, and received his J.D. degree from St. John's Law School, where he won the American Jurisprudence Award in Evidence and served as an editor of the Law Review and the St. Thomas More Institute for Legal Research. He wrote on the Pentagon Papers case for the Review and obscenity law for The Catholic Lawyer and edited the Law Review's commentary on significant developments in New York law.

The day after graduating, Gaynor joined the Fulton firm, where he focused on litigation and corporate law. In 1997 Gaynor and Emily Bass formed Gaynor & Bass and then conducted a general legal practice, emphasizing litigation, and represented corporations, individuals and a New York City labor union. Notably, Gaynor & Bass prevailed in the Second Circuit in a seminal copyright infringement case, Tasini v. New York Times, against newspaper and magazine publishers and Lexis-Nexis. The U.S. Supreme Court affirmed, 7 to 2, holding that the copyrights of freelance writers had been infringed when their work was put online without permission or compensation.

Gaynor currently contributes regularly to www.MichNews.com, www.RenewAmerica.com, www.WebCommentary.com, www.PostChronicle.com and www.therealitycheck.org and has contributed to many other websites. He has written extensively on political and religious issues, notably the Terry Schiavo case, the Duke "no rape" case, ACORN and canon law, and appeared as a guest on television and radio. He was acknowledged in Until Proven Innocent, by Stuart Taylor and KC Johnson, and Culture of Corruption, by Michelle Malkin. He appeared on "Your World With Cavuto" to promote an eBay boycott that he initiated and "The World Over With Raymond Arroyo" (EWTN) to discuss the legal implications of the Schiavo case. On October 22, 2008, Gaynor was the first to report that The New York Times had killed an Obama/ACORN expose on which a Times reporter had been working with ACORN whistleblower Anita MonCrief.

Gaynor's email address is gaynormike@aol.com.