Appeals court orders review of war memorial cross

An appeals court ordered further proceedings on a Jewish veterans group’s challenge to the display of a cross at a San Diego veterans’ memorial, saying it was unconstitutional.

The 9th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in San Francisco ruled Tuesday that the cross on Mount Soledad was a “government endorsement of religion.”

The Jewish War Veterans of the United States of America, backed by a number of Jewish and civil liberties groups, filed the appeal a year ago after a U.S. district court ruled that the cross was not unconstitutional because it “communicates the primarily non-religious messages of military service, death and sacrifice.”

The appeals court said the district court must consider ways to reconfigure the site so that it can “pass constitutional muster,” The Los Angeles Times reported.