From Deseret News archives:
Pleasant Grove case gains supporters
Feds, 14 states back monument challenge
Among those filing friend-of-the-court briefs supporting Pleasant Grove are: the U.S. government; 14 states; 10 cities, including New York City; the American Legion and Veterans of Foreign Wars; and religious groups including the Jewish Social Policy Action Network and the American Catholic Lawyers Association.
Meanwhile, the church opposing Pleasant Grove in the case, Summum, has had only two groups file friend-of-the-court briefs for it, the American Jewish Congress and the Rutherford Institute, a civil liberties group.
Several others groups have filed briefs that are neither for nor against Pleasant Grove or Summum but prefer alternate outcomes or worry the court could hurt their interests if its ruling is too wide. They range from the Boy Scouts of America to Americans United for Separation of Church and State.
It all helps make the case one of the most colorful on the Supreme Court's docket this year. All those briefs have been filed in advance of oral arguments, which are scheduled for Nov. 12.
A federal appeals court said that violated Summum's free-speech rights, and Pleasant Grove is asking the Supreme Court to reverse that.
The U.S. Solicitor General filed a brief saying the case could destroy the ability of the National Park Service or federal museums to control what monuments and items they accept and display and noted that donations have included everything from the Statue of Liberty to monuments at battlefields and Smithsonian museum artifacts.
The solicitor general argued that under the appeals court decision, "a city's display of a privately donated monument to Abraham Lincoln could entitle an individual to insist that the city permit the erection of a monument to Jefferson Davis, or a group could insist that the presence of the memorial in Pioneer Park commemorating the Sept. 11 attacks entitles it to erect a memorial to the terrorists who carried them out."
The solicitor general said, as Pleasant Grove contends, that a government's decision on what to accept and display amounts to "government speech," which is just as protected as private freedom of speech.
Recent comments
Bottom line up front. Pleasant Grove, as any other organization...
RC | Nov. 7, 2008 at 11:26 a.m.
What was it you were saying about a chip on someone's shoulder?...
re: Dear Anonymous | Oct. 11, 2008 at 7:56 p.m.
The flags were lowered when the Pope died...
dj | Oct. 11, 2008 at 4:58 p.m.
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