Activist Judges are Alive and Well in San Diego

If this doesn't spell it out for you, I don't know what does.

Do you all know the story of the Mt. Soledad Cross? The fight to save it? The fact that over 3/4 of the population of San Diego wants it saved?

Judge Patricia Yim Cowett doesn't.

This sorry excuse for a superior court judge has done more to promote judicial legislation than anything I've ever seen. And I'm SUPREMELY PISSED because I'm one of the voters here. Let's go through this, shall we?

July 21, 2005 -- Just FIVE DAYS BEFORE THE SPECIAL ELECTION where the Mt. Soledad issue was on the ballot, Judge COWett decided it would be awfully tactful to make it more difficult for the measure to pass. Pretty damn convenient, wouldn't you say?

SAN DIEGO – Proposition A, which would allow the city of San Diego to donate the site containing the Mount Soledad cross to the federal government, will require a two-thirds vote on Tuesday's ballot, a judge ruled Thursday.

Superior Court Judge Patricia Yim Cowett agreed with attorney James McElroy that a two-thirds-vote was needed without a guarantee from the federal government that it wouldn't change the use of the city park land in the future.

Cowett reserved judgment on whether the city or the Mount Soledad Memorial Association actually owns the land surrounding the cross.

"The city does not have the authority to transfer to the federal government what it does not own," McElroy argued.

The judge said the constitutionality of the transfer of the land will remain an issue should Proposition A pass by the required margin.

McElroy said the future of the cross' stay on Mount Soledad could be nearing an end.

"I think it's pretty much over," the attorney told reporters outside the courtroom.

But Phil Thalheimer, chairman of San Diegans for the Mount Soledad National War Memorial, said he was "not very disappointed" in the judge's ruling and expects Prop A to pass next week.

I bet Phil is pretty damn pissed off right now. Prop A passed OVERWHELMINGLY--76% passage. But guess what! San Diego voters are ignored...

She ruled that "the transfer is again an unconstitutional preference of the Christian religion to the exclusion of other religions and non-religious beliefs," in violation of the state constitution.

Cowett also ruled that the city's attempt to transfer the land to the federal government without compensation "for the purpose of saving the cross is also an unconstitutional aid to the Christian religion."

The judge found that memorial has predominantly "a religious purpose," and noted that secular war memorial events and adornments at the site were added only after legal challenges were threatened or initiated.

"To maintain the memorial, as it is presently, would demonstrate the government's lack of neutrality as to religion, shows a preference for one religion to the exclusion of other religions and non-religious beliefs, and aids one religion," she wrote. "To so rule does not attempt to, nor does it actually, demonstrate hostility to religion."

It's the latest twist in the long legal saga involving the 29-foot cross, which sits on city-owned land.

James McElroy, the attorney for Philip Paulson, the atheist who sued more than a decade ago to have the cross removed, said the judge ruled in his client's favor on the three key issues: two potential breaches of the state constitution and one of the federal constitution.

"I certainly expected this result," he said. "The law demanded this result."

City Attorney Michael Aguirre and several council members had warned before the vote that Proposition A would not stand up to a legal challenge.

"She's decided pretty definitively and unless she changes her mind the issue is closed on this matter," Aguirre said of the ruling Friday. "This issue has lasted longer than any war we fought. It takes a very courageous judge to look 75 percent of the population in the face and say, `I'm sorry but this isn't constitutional.'‚"

Talk about frustration. I bet the bitch is courageous. She didn't even run against anybody when she was "elected". That's right. 100% of the vote for her. This is a travesty of monumental proportions...no pun intended. And what type of low-life has no other useful purpose in life over the past decade but to fight to get a cross off of city land. Will somebody kill this guy or foreclose on his house, or something?