May 2020 – After four years of litigation, the historic, 34-foot Bayview Park Cross, first erected in 1941, will remain standing at Bayview Park in Pensacola, Florida, according to the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Applying a 2019 Supreme Court precedent from a similar case surrounding the World War I Bladensburg Cross in Maryland, the three-judge appellate panel ruled that the Bayview Cross does not offend the Constitution’s First Amendment Establishment Clause.
Rather than violating the separation of church and state, the judges further agreed with the Supreme Court that removal of such a historic landmark would “strike many as aggressively hostile to religion.” Furthermore, two of the three judges wrote that being affronted, excluded, or offended by religious symbols does not constitute grounds for an individual to sue.
