Veterans reenlist

Memorial Day: American Legion joins legal defense groups to battle ACLU incursions against memorials | Barbara Curtis

For nearly two decades, the ACLU has waged war against the cross in the public square, turning the laws meant to protect freedom of speech against small communities whose budgets can't stand up to a political Goliath.

Now the ACLU may meet its match.

In a face-off coinciding with Memorial Day weekend, the American Legion—the largest veterans service organization in the United States—in partnership with Alliance Defense Fund and Liberty Legal Institute will declare war. It plans to serve notice to the ACLU on May 24 that attacks on war memorials will no longer be tolerated.

The first salvo in this courtroom war was fired by the ACLU in 1989 with a suit to remove the 29-foot Mount Soledad cross, a war memorial overlooking the San Diego harbor since 1913 and providing inspiration to returning Navy vessels.