Bearing Scalia's Cross

Ahh, Justice Scalia, just when I was going to lay off you for a while you paint a big bulls eye on your forehead with an intemperate outburst about how a war memorial cross on what was once public land is not an establishment clause violating religious symbol but a one size fits all commemorative symbol. Scalia's outburst was in reaction to an ACLU lawyer upstaging Scalia by pointing out, to laughter in the courtroom, that Scalia's argument that the cross was a generic commemorative symbol in the memorial context made no sense in light of the fact that there is a dearth of crosses in Jewish cemeteries. The ACLU lawyer's riposte was in reaction to Scalia's smug question as to whether it would be better if instead of a cross there was some sort of amalgamation of the cross, the star of David, and Islam's star and crescent. Because you know, all dead soldiers belong to one of the religions of Abraham and there are no atheists in foxholes. Scalia emphatically argued that crosses in this context aren't really Christian symbols because they're all over the place in cemeteries, everybody does it, so it's really not religious symbolism but popular symbolism that is not subject to establishment clause challenges. Scalia is all about majority rule on this point, the minority can and is going to hell as far as he's concerned. No doubt if the case was about a secular attack on Catholicism for its seemingly entrenched pederasty and ritual cannibalism he would rush to protect minority rights. Weak. What happened to you Scalia? I used to have a grudging respect for you. Were you just fronting in the Texas flag burning case?