A Florida city is appealing a decision that forces it to remove a 75-year-old cross display from a public park due to an atheist group’s complaint and threat of a potential lawsuit. The city of Pensacola filed an appeal in the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals on Tuesday with the hopes of reversing a lower court decision from June ruling that they must remove the cross from Bayview Park. “Pensacola has an obvious secular purpose for allowing the cross to remain: to preserve the city’s history and culture.
Plaintiffs have not identified any evidence that this purpose is a sham,” read the appeal for the case known as Kondrat’yev, et al v. City of Pensacola. “This court should vacate and remand, with instructions to dismiss the case for lack of jurisdiction. Alternatively, if the court reaches the merits, the decision of the district court should be reversed and the case remanded for entry of summary judgment in favor of the city.” The appeal also argued that the plaintiffs bringing the lawsuit “lack standing to sue” the city over the cross display for various reasons. READ MORE
