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ANN ARBOR, MI – Continuing its battle started in 2004 to save the Mt. Soledad Cross, the Thomas More Law Center, today filed a friend of the court brief in support of the Government’s effort to overturn a Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals decision that ordered the Cross’s removal.  The Cross is the centerpiece of the Mount Soledad Veteran’s Memorial on an 822-foot high hill in San Diego, California.

The Law Center’s brief was filed on behalf of Rear Admiral Jeremiah Denton (USN Retired), Chairman of the Law Center’s Citizens Advisory Board, and Sybil and Robert Martino parents of then Captain Michael D. Martino, USMC, and Julie Bloomfield, the wife of Major Gerald Bloomfield II, USMC.   Both Captain Martino and Major Bloomfield were killed in action on November 2, 2005 during operations in Iraq.  All three service members have plaques commemorating their service to our nation at the foot of the Cross.

The purpose of the Law Center’s brief is to provide a voice to the Court that is often not heard, the voice of those who will be truly harmed by the destruction of war memorials simply because they contain a religious symbol.  Most Americans understand that memorials, with religious symbols do not establish a religion, but honor self sacrifice, as well as provide comfort to those that have lost a loved one in battle.

In 2004, both the City of San Diego and the Memorial Association had given up the fight and agreed to remove the Cross in order to settle the legal battle that had been going on for 15 years.  However, just weeks before that agreement was executed, the Thomas More Law Center stepped in on behalf of a former Korean War Navy pilot and took over the defense of the Cross.

Through a series of legal maneuvers with the invaluable assistance of the Law Center’s West Coast Director, Charles LiMandri, and others, the Law Center was able to get Congress to declare the Mt. Soledad Cross a National Veteran’s Memorial.  Nevertheless, a federal judge ordered San Diego to remove the Cross within 90 days or pay $5,000 per day if the Cross was not removed within that time.  This time, the Law Center went to the U.S. Supreme Court and obtained an emergency stay of that order, saving the Cross in both the state and federal appellate courts.

The concrete Cross was erected in 1954 by the Mount Soledad Memorial Association. It is 29 feet tall and sits on a 14 foot base.  The six concentric walls surrounding it display more that 2,100 plaques and commemorate individual veterans or veteran groups.  The Cross was first challenged in court in 1989.  To avoid the legal challenges, Congress ultimately designated the Cross as a memorial to all veterans of all wars, including the War on Terrorism.

Because the Memorial was taken over by the federal government, ACLU attorneys filed a new lawsuit to remove the Cross, this time against the federal government with new plaintiffs.  The Federal District Court held that there was no establishment clause violation because Congress acted in a clear cut secular purpose to preserve the site as a Memorial and the primary effect of the Memorial is patriotic and nationalistic.  However, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals reversed the lower court’s decision, holding that the memorial as configured primarily conveys a message of government endorsement of religion.

Clearly, the Mt. Soledad Cross would have been torn down in 2004 had not the Thomas More Law Center intervened in the case.   The attorney representing the original atheist-Plaintiff who ultimately failed in his attempt to destroy the Cross admitted – Thomas More Law Center is responsible for the Cross.

The Thomas More Law Center defends and promotes America’s Judeo-Christian heritage and moral values, including the religious freedom of Christians, time-honored family values, and the sanctity of human life.  It supports a strong national defense and an independent and sovereign United States of America.  The Law Center accomplishes its mission through litigation, education, and related activities.  It does not charge for its services.  The Law Center is supported by contributions from individuals, corporations and foundations, and is recognized by the IRS as a section 501(c)(3) organization.  You may reach the Thomas More Law Center at (734) 827-2001 or visit our website at www.thomasmore.org.

ANN ARBOR, MI –Several international Islamic news agencies, including the Ahlul Bayt News Agency (ABNA) and the International Islamic News Agency (IINA), this past week, targeted the Thomas More Law Center (TMLC) and its President Richard Thompson, in articles claiming that U.S. Muslims are being unfairly treated.

The Thomas More Law Center is a national public interest law firm based in Ann Arbor, Michigan, whose mission includes the promotion of America’s Judeo-Christian heritage and a strong national defense.

The agencies, relating a story of a Muslim girl who was hesitant in practicing her faith while in public school, focused their attack on comments by Thompson. The story published by the International Islamic News Agency stated in part:

“Some also say providing Muslim students with prayer rooms and special food constitutes an organized attempt to push Islamic law in public settings. In fact, some of the most outspoken critics of accommodation for Muslim students are Christian groups. “What (school officials) are doing … is to give Muslim students religious benefits that they do not give any other religion right now,” Richard Thompson, president and chief counsel at the Thomas More Law Center, a Christian advocacy group, told USA Today.”

Thompson did not back down from his comments.  “Islam is more than a religion.  It is a political ideology that regulates every aspect of human existence, and calls for the Islamic domination of the world. Since radical Muslims know they can never defeat our military on the battlefield, they devised the strategy of internal subversion.”

Continued Thompson,

“Like the ancient Trojan Horse welcomed within the city’s gates, Islam has entered America disguised as a religion.  But its ultimate objective is political: Destroy America and establish an Islamic nation under Shariah Law.  So while America sleeps, they are awake and subverting our government, as well as our public schools and universities.  And we will not be deterred from our efforts to stop them.”

In fact, the Thomas More Law Center was one of the first Christian advocacy groups in the nation to take legal action against the double standard that favored Islam over Christianity.

In 2002, the Thomas More Law Center filed a federal lawsuit against the Byron Union School District in California for a three week indoctrination course in the Islamic faith for its seventh grade students, using the work book “Islam, A simulation of Islamic history and culture, workbook’s cover page.

The 12-year old students were told:

• “From the beginning you and your classmates will become Muslim”
• Dress up as a Muslim and try to be involved to guarantee an excellent grade.
• Pick Islamic names and wear them around your neck as ID tags.
• Read the fatiha, the opening chapter in the Koran and recited by Muslims at every daily prayer.
• Play a dice game called Jihad by declaring a jihad against another group.
• Jihad is a struggle by Muslims against oppression.
• Complete the phrase required for conversion to Islam.
• Complete the Five Pillars of the Islamic Faith.
• Analyze certain verses from the Koran.

In an astonishing ruling, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals approved the school’s Islamic indoctrination holding that the Islam program activities were not “overt religious exercises” that raised Establishment Clause concerns.  Just to make sure their ruling could not be precedent to establish similar classes for Christians, they made their ruling “Not for Publication.”

Our K-12 textbooks contain sugarcoated versions of Islam promoted by the Council on Islamic Education.  Those versions don’t mention its kidnappings, beheadings, slave-trading, savage murder, and persecution of non-Muslims or the repression of women.

The founder of the Council of American Islamic Relations (CAIR), Omar Ahmad said this to a group of American Muslims in 1998:

“Islam isn’t in America to be equal to any other faith, but to become dominant. The Koran should be the highest authority in America, and Islam the only accepted religion on Earth.”

In a more recent Law Center case, in 2007 the Poway School District ordered math teacher Bradley Johnson, to take down banners displaying patriotic phrases such as “In God We Trust,” and “One Nation Under God” because they promoted a Judeo-Christian message and might offend a Muslim student.  Johnson’s banners had been displayed for 25 years without a single complaint from students or parents.

Showing their bias against Christians, school officials allowed other teachers to display non-Christian religious messages in their classrooms.  These displays included a 40-foot string of Tibetan prayer flags with images of Buddha hung across a classroom, a poster with Hindu leader Mahatma Gandhi’s “7 Social Sins;” a poster of Muslim leader Malcolm X; and a  poster of the Buddhist leader Dali Lama.

In September 2011, the Thomas More Law Center’s lawsuit on behalf of Brad Johnson was dismissed by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. The Law Center has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to review the case.