Rehearing Denied: Public WWI Memorial Cross Will Come Down

A controversy over a Latin cross on Maryland state property could entice the U.S. Supreme Court to weigh in, but scholars told Bloomberg Law they’re skeptical about that possibility.

The full Fourth Circuit declined to reconsider a ruling that the cross violated the First Amendment’s establishment clause, by an 8-6 vote March 1.

The decision puts “hundreds, and perhaps thousands,” of similar monuments at risk, such as those at Arlington National Cemetery, Judge Paul V. Niemeyer said in a dissent from the denial of rehearing.

The U.S. Supreme Court “might be interested” in taking up the case, Douglas Laycock, ...