Controversy over cross makes it's way to Supreme Court

By Alison St John / Reporter, KPBS Public Broadcasting

Published June 28, 2006 at 9:00 PM PDT

This story was published more than 18 years ago.

Legal briefs are flying from San Diego to the U.S. Supreme Court this week, in a flurry of activity over the future of the Mount Soledad Cross. The cross will be taken down by August first unless a

Legal briefs are flying from San Diego to the U.S. Supreme Court this week, in a flurry of activity over the future of the Mount Soledad Cross. The cross will be taken down by August first unless a legal delay is granted. KPBS reporter Alison St John has more.

A group of San Diegans determined to keep the cross amount Mount Soleded will add their emergency application to the Supreme Court, seeking to delay a deadline to have the cross removed.
The city of San Diego has already filed its own application, though city attorney Mike Aguirre openly admits he doubts it will be successful.

Attorney Jim McElroy, is suing to have the cross removed, because it is a religious symbol on city owned land. He says he's filing briefs opposing the delay.

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McElroy: "To get a stay you have to convince the court that you are likely to win on appeal and the city just does not have any law that supports its position, it hasn't had for 17 years and it doesn't have now."

McElroy says a single Supreme Court Justice, Justice Anthony Kennedy, will consider the applications and is likely to give his decision within a week.
Alison St John KPBS news.

Alison St John

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Alison St John currently serves as a general assignment reporter and occasionally co-hosts KPBS Midday Edition. She fell in love with KPBS Radio when she arrived in San Diego in 1985 and first heard NPR. She has been a voice on KPBS Radio since 1989, and has served as a news reporter for radio, TV and the web, as well as anchoring, hosting, producing and editing. Alison has reported on stories about North County and was based in the KPBS' North County Bureau. Alison covered the metro beat during the critical period of the San Diego City pension crisis, and the education beat while Alan Bersin was the controversial Superintendent of San Diego City School District. She covered health when the industry was converting to managed care and told welfare reform stories in the late 1990s when Clinton was “ending welfare as we know it.” She has covered land use issues extensively, looking at the challenges of meeting a growing population while preserving community character, and developing a better transportation system to meet environmental concerns. She has done many stories on the military in San Diego, and the series she edited on the challenges veterans face returning from active duty to civilian life won “Best of Show” from the San Diego Society of Professional Journalists. She occasionally hosts the KPBS Roundtable and KPBS Midday Edition. Alison has won awards from the San Diego Press Club, the Society of Professional Journalists, the Associated Press TV and Radio Association, and the California Golden Mike Awards. Alison was born in Tanzania, brought up in Scotland, and earned her degree in psychology and sociology from Durham University in England. Her postgraduate diploma is in student counseling. She worked in England, Nigeria, Switzerland, Belgium, India, and Japan before moving to the United States in 1981. She now lives in Oceanside and enjoys how her community is growing and changing.