posted by Writer on Jun 23
Happenings last week.
The Bladensburg Cross – The Supreme Court, in a surprising move this week, ruled a war memorial in the shape of a cross could remain on public lands.
They were farmers, surgeons, a professor, even the president of the Marine Corps baseball team. One was a man in his 50s, already wounded, who had “no business being on the front lines.” They were 49 men with one thing in common: they never came home. Today, most Marylanders couldn’t tell you their stories. That’s because 100 years after the war ended, we’re too busy fighting for what those heroes died to give us: freedom.
It’s been 94 years since a grieving mom pulled the flag away from the base of a 40-foot cross, revealing the names of almost 50 soldiers — mostly boys — who gave their lives in World War 1. For almost a century, the cross has stood against the sky, one mile from the D.C. line, a fixture against an ever-changing landscape. It’s survived a second world war, Korea, the Cuban missile crisis, Vietnam, the Persian Gulf, 9/11, and now — thanks to the Supreme Court — its biggest battle: radical extremists, bent on tearing the memorial down because it was in the shape of a cross.
By a 7-2 vote, the justices were clear, “The cross is undoubtedly a Christian symbol, but that fact should not blind us to everything else that the Bladensburg Cross has come to represent. For some, that monument is a symbolic resting place for ancestors who never returned home. For others, it is a place… to gather and honor all veterans and their sacrifices for our Nation. For others still, it is a historical landmark.” At its core, they insist, it’s “part of the community.” In fact, the justices argued, “its removal or radical alteration at this date would be seen by many not as a neutral act but as the manifestation of a hostility toward religion that has no place in our Establishment Clause traditions…”
In a concurring opinion, Justice Neil Gorsuch talked about how tired he is of this “I-take-offense” threshold for suing. “In a large and diverse country, offense can be easily found. Really, most every governmental action probably offends somebody. No doubt, too, that offense can be sincere, sometimes well taken, even wise. But recourse for disagreement and offense does not lie in federal litigation. Instead, in a society that holds among its most cherished ambitions mutual respect, tolerance, self-rule, and democratic responsibility, an ‘offended viewer’ may ‘avert his eyes’…or pursue a political solution.” In other words, Gorsuch insisted, if secularists are this upset about the memorial, take it up with the legislature! After all, Justice Kavanaugh added, “This court is not the only guardian of individual rights in America.”
As grateful as we are for the victory, there are many — FRC included — who were hoping the justices would take the opportunity to overhaul the mess our courts have made of the Establishment Clause. Protecting war memorials is important, but these issues will continue to bubble up if the Supreme Court doesn’t scrap the “Lemon test” that’s driven the attacks on other faith-based monuments and displays. Justice Thomas was certainly more than ready to.
“Nearly half a century after Lemon,” Thomas writes, “and, the truth is, no one has any idea about the answers to these questions. As the plurality documents, our ‘doctrine [is] in such chaos’ that lower courts have been ‘free to reach almost any result in almost any case.’ Scores of judges have pleaded with us to retire Lemon, scholars of all stripes have criticized the doctrine, and a majority of this Court has long done the same. Today, not a single Member of the Court even tries to defend Lemon against these criticisms — and they don’t because they can’t… It is our job to say what the law is, and because the Lemon test is not good law, we ought to say so.”
As we explained in FRC’s amicus brief, religion has a natural, proper, and even essential role in our public life and the life of our military. We’re grateful for the result the Supreme Court delivered today — but we’ll continue to push the court to correct the confusion that’s been used to scrub religious messages, signs, and symbols from public life.” (1)
Due Process Still Under Assault – Courtroom drama unfolded this week after “A medic testifying in the trial of Navy SEAL Edward Gallagher – who is accused of killing an injured ISIS prisoner of war in Iraq – shocked trial observers when he testified Thursday that he, not Gallagher, was responsible for the Islamic militant’s death.
Special Operator 1st Class Corey Scott, a SEAL Team Seven medic, revealed during cross-examination in the courtroom at Naval Base San Diego that he killed the fighter by asphyxiation. Scott testified that he saw Gallagher stab the fighter, but then he himself held his thumb over a breathing tube that had been inserted into the militant’s mouth.
“Did Chief Gallagher kill this terrorist?” Gallagher’s attorney Timothy Parlatore then asked Scott…”No”, Scott replied…
“Why did you kill him?” Parlatore asked Scott during one point of the cross-examination “Because I knew he was going to die anyway,” Scott answered. “I wanted to save him from what was going to happen next to him…Scott also told the defense counsel that during his time serving overseas, he had witnessed the Iraqi Emergency Response Division “torture, rape and murder prisoners.”
“Is this why you asphyxiated him?” Parlatore asked. “Yes,” Scott replied. (2)
Despite the “shocking testimony” which turned the case upside down, military prosecutors are charging ahead with prosecuting Gallagher. Unbelievable!
We should never forget what American forces endured during World War II on Iwo Jima and Guam. Don’t forget what happened on those islands. American troops fought to win. The Japs took no prisoners and tortured our boys in the night so our troops could hear the screams.
The Marines decided they werent taking prioners either. We won, they lost. We know what isis is and what isis has done.
We can’t send men into war and expect things to be bed and roses. Who cares about an isis fighter. President Truman dropped bombs because the Japs would not surrender unconditionally. Many are attempting to rewrite history, and call what Truman ordered as a grave act of inhamanity.
Hey! It ended the war. If the war went on, a million more Americans would have been killed. We need to consider what isis has done throught the world, and no one should care. (3)
1). World War Won: Cross Memorial Stays, Court Rules; Family research Council, Tony Perkin’s Washington Update, June 20, 2019; 2). Medic testifies that he, not Navy SEAL Eddie Gallagher, was responsible for ISIS fighter’s death, Fox News, Greg Norman and Dan Gallo, June 20, 2019; 3). Mark Levin commentary, The Mark Levin Show, June 20, 2019, www.marklevinshow.com
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