Supreme Court Won't Tackle Roadside Crosses Fight

The Supreme Court announced Monday that it won't reopen a case in which a lower court ruled that highway crosses memorializing Utah state troopers were unconstitutional, reports the Religion News Service. Dave Silverman, president of American Atheists, who filed the suit in 2005 after the Utah Highway Patrol Association erected 12-foot white crosses to honor fallen officers, said he hoped the court's decision would bring the case to an end and lead to an alternative way of honoring troopers who died in the line of duty. However, the conservative Alliance Defense Fund, who asked the Supreme Court to consider the case, was disappointed. "Justice is not well-served when unhappy atheists can use the law to mow down memorial crosses and renew the suffering for the survivors," said ADF senior counsel Byron Babione. Justice Clarence Thomas, the lone dissenter, also harshly criticized the court's decision, saying it rejected "an opportunity to provide clarity" to an area of law that was "in shambles."