Friday

Phil Paulson comment



I was doing some google searching and came across this chat dialog with Phil Paulson, the man who brought the first suit in 1989 and spearheaded this campaign to preserve the proverbial wall until he died in 2006.  Here's the Link 

Justice Kennedy's Soledad Intervention

Brights, SDARI and Philip

Since my letter last week, "Soledad White Flag?" I have read the responses such
as Philips below, that clearly state why the law at all levels is on our side.
This is exactly why Kennedy's action was so stunning.

After seventeen years of litigation, those flouting our laws now need more time?
Something must be brewing, and I posited a sea change in jurisprudence under the
rubric of return of "the Constitution in exile."

Let me state a few assumptions, some well know, others less so:

The values of the Bill of Rights are loosely held by the American People.
Phrased in certain ways in polls, they do not get majority support.

By definition, in spite of Garrison Keillor's Lake Woebegone, half of Americans
have I.Q.s in two digits. They relate to Atheists taking away our Cross but draw
a blank on the advantages of a secular government.

Once political leaders lose the inhibition against fomenting religious hatred,
which is picked up by the mass media, and exacerbated by demagogues such as
Hedgecock and O'Reilly, there is a mass movement that takes on dangerous
proportions.

The bedrock resistance has been the courts, which represents the enduring values
that are beyond the understanding of the general public, and too tempting an
issue for those media and political figures who stand to garner fame and fortune
by marching at the head of the angry crowd.

There are two bills working their way in congress that will have a major impact
on the fight against religious encroachment. One will allow Military Chaplains
to Proselytize Christianity even in required assemblages of troops. The other,
more substantive, will remove the reimbursement of legal fees for cases against
unconstitutional encroachment of religion symbols. Had this law been in effect,
the Soledad case would not have been feasible.

The trust of my communication with this group is that we look at the
social,political and legal realities of the moment. My tittle "White Flag" was
ill chosen. The better question is how can we preserve our rights, in what is
looking like a sea change of disturbing proportions.

Al Rodbell


Humanist Phil Osophy wrote:
Carl,

Will the Supreme Court Justices Roberts, Alito, Scalia, Thomas and Kennedy
decide (5 to 4 ruling) to condemn the Mt. Soledad Natural Park with the
pending authority of Congressional "eminent domain" powers in order to save
the "Mt. Soledad Easter Cross?" Three San Diego area Congressmen Hunter,
Bilbray and Issa have an unconstitutional bill pending in the US Congress to
do just that. But Cunningham Memorial Cross will be remembered.

During the late hours of night on the floor of the US House of
Representatives, Congressman Duke Cunningham (Republican-San Diego) slipped
into an Omnibus spending Bill HR4818 an irrelevant Mt. Soledad Park Rider on
the House Report bill, that would make Memorial Status for the Mt. Soledad
Cross and Public Park inserted into this US funding legislation; No
description of the Rider was read aloud and no debate was allowed according
to the railroaded House Rules. Frankly, nobody knew that the Rider was in
the House Report Bill, except Congressmen Duke Cunningham, Duncan Hunter and
Tom DeLay. However, the House Report Bill stipulated that the City of San
Diego would have to transfer (gift or sell) the park over to the US
government.

Please note that religious symbols placed on federally owned parklands
violate the US and California Constitutions [Buono vs. Norton, 2004 WL
1238143 (9th Cir. Jun. 7, 2004)]; Buono vs. Norton court ruling is settled
law and public policy with regard to federal parklands.

By the way, Cunningham is now Inmate 94405-198.

The 1st Amendment (Bill of Rights) to the US Constitution provides for the
"Establishment Clause." Religious establishment is prohibited. "Congress
shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion ..." and the Mt.
Soledad Easter Cross positioned on a public park in San Diego is the
unmistakable symbol of the Christian religion. The Mt. Soledad Easter Cross
conveys a sectarian message, "Jesus Rules America."

 Philip Paulson

text of law transfering Soledad monument to

[109th Congress Public Law 272]
[From the U.S. Government Printing Office]


[DOCID: f:publ272.109]

[[Page 769]]

MT. SOLEDAD VETERANS MEMORIAL ACQUISITION

[[Page 120 STAT. 770]]

Public Law 109-272
109th Congress

An Act



To preserve the Mt. Soledad Veterans Memorial in San Diego, California,
by providing for the immediate acquisition of the memorial by the United
States. <>

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the
United States of America in Congress <note.>> assembled,

SECTION 1. FINDINGS.

Congress makes the following findings:
(1) The Mt. Soledad Veterans Memorial has proudly stood
overlooking San Diego, California, for over 52 years as a
tribute to the members of the United States Armed Forces who
sacrificed their lives in the defense of the United States.
(2) The Mt. Soledad Veterans Memorial was dedicated on April
18, 1954, as ``a lasting memorial to the dead of the First and
Second World Wars and the Korean conflict'' and now serves as a
memorial to American veterans of all wars, including the War on
Terrorism.
(3) The United States has a long history and tradition of
memorializing members of the Armed Forces who die in battle with
a cross or other religious emblem of their faith, and a memorial
cross is fully integrated as the centerpiece of the multi-
faceted Mt. Soledad Veterans Memorial that is replete with
secular symbols.
(4) The patriotic and inspirational symbolism of the Mt.
Soledad Veterans Memorial provides solace to the families and
comrades of the veterans it memorializes.
(5) The Mt. Soledad Veterans Memorial has been recognized by
Congress as a National Veterans Memorial and is considered a
historically significant national memorial.
(6) 76 percent of the voters of San Diego supported donating
the Mt. Soledad Memorial to the Federal Government only to have
a superior court judge of the State of California invalidate
that election.
(7) The City of San Diego has diligently pursued every
possible legal recourse in order to preserve the Mt. Soledad
Veterans Memorial in its entirety for persons who have served in
the Armed Forces and those persons who will serve and sacrifice
in the future.

SEC. 2. ACQUISITION OF MT. SOLEDAD VETERANS MEMORIAL, SAN DIEGO,
CALIFORNIA.

(a) Acquisition.--To effectuate the purpose of section 116 of
division E of Public Law 108-447 (118 Stat. 3346; 16 U.S.C. 431 note),
which, in order to preserve a historically significant war memorial,
designated the Mt. Soledad Veterans Memorial in San

[[Page 120 STAT. 771]]

Diego, California, as a national memorial honoring veterans of the
United States Armed Forces, there is hereby vested in the United States
all right, title, and interest in and to, and the right to immediate
possession of, the Mt. Soledad Veterans Memorial in San Diego,
California
, as more fully described in subsection (d).
(b) Compensation.--The United States shall pay just compensation to
any owner of the property for the property taken pursuant to this
section, and the full faith and credit of the United States is hereby
pledged to the payment of any judgment entered against the United States
with respect to the taking of the property. Payment shall be in the
amount of the agreed negotiated value of the property or the valuation
of the property awarded by judgment and shall be made from the permanent
judgment appropriation established pursuant to section 1304 of title 31,
United States Code. If the parties do not reach a negotiated settlement
within one year after the date of the enactment of this Act, the
Secretary of Defense may initiate a proceeding in a court of competent
jurisdiction to determine the just compensation with respect to the
taking of such property.
(c) <> Maintenance.--Upon acquisition of the Mt.
Soledad Veterans Memorial by the United States, the Secretary of Defense
shall manage the property and shall enter into a memorandum of
understanding with the Mt. Soledad Memorial Association for the
continued maintenance of the Mt. Soledad Veterans Memorial by the
Association.

(d) Legal Description.--The Mt. Soledad Veterans Memorial referred
to in this section is all that portion of Pueblo lot 1265 of the Pueblo
Lands of San Diego in the City and County of San Diego, California,
according to the map thereof prepared by James Pascoe in 1879, a copy of
which was filed in the office of the County Recorder of San Diego County
on November 14, 1921, and is known as miscellaneous map No. 36, more
particularly described as follows: The area bounded by the back of the
existing inner sidewalk on top of Mt. Soledad, being also a circle with
radius of 84 feet, the center of which circle is located as follows:
Beginning at the Southwesterly corner of such Pueblo Lot 1265, such
corner being South 17 degrees 14'33" East (Record South 17 degrees
14'09" East) 607.21 feet distant along the westerly line of such Pueblo
lot 1265 from the intersection with the North line of La Jolla Scenic
Drive South as described and dedicated as parcel 2 of City Council
Resolution No. 216644 adopted August 25, 1976; thence North 39 degrees
59'24" East 1147.62 feet to the center of such circle. The exact
boundaries and legal description of the Mt. Soledad Veterans Memorial
shall be determined by survey prepared by the Secretary of Defense. Upon
acquisition

[[Page 120 STAT. 772]]