Justice Scalia Thinks a Cross Is a Secular Symbol

Susan Jacoby in The Washington Post points out a largely overlooked exchange with Justice Antonin Scalia in that cross case heard by Supreme Court earlier this month. The case revolved around whether the government can keep a war memorial consisting of a solitary cross on public parkland. But while American Civil Liberties Union lawyer Peter Eliasberg made the argument that a statue of a soldier, for example, might be a better memorial to those who died in World War I, Scalia appeared shocked that the Jewish lawyer didn’t understand that the cross represents all the dead soldiers. “The cross is the most common symbol of…of…of the resting places of the dead,” Scalia insisted.

Actually, it’s only common in Christian cemeteries. You won’t find a cross in the resting places of Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, or Hindus, Jacobi notes, adding “How did this man ever get a reputation as an intellectually respectable conservative judge?”