This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2011, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
The U.S. Supreme Court has yet to make a decision about whether to hear a case involving the appropriateness of placing 12-foot-high crosses on public property in the Beehive State to memorialize state troopers killed in the line of duty.
The high court will meet again on Oct. 28 to discuss the case in private — making it the fourth time the justices have done so, according to Brian Barnard, a Salt Lake City civil rights attorney involved in the case.
Barnard said he expects an announcement from the court on whether they will grant or deny certiorari review late on Oct. 28 or early on Oct. 31.
Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff has pushed the high court to take on the case, arguing that the highway crosses should be displayed and that no other court has held that memorial crosses establish a religion. Barnard, who filed a brief on behalf of American Atheists Inc., has argued the case is not worthy of the high court's attention, claiming issue of roadside crosses on state land doesn't apply outside of the Beehive State.
The filings earlier this year by Barnard and Shurtleff were the latest arguments in what has been a lengthy court battle over the alleged display of religious imagery on public land between the Utah Highway Patrol Association (UHPA) and New Jersey-based American Atheists Inc.
The case began when American Atheists and three of its Utah members sued the state in 2005 for allowing the association to incorporate the UHP logo on the 12-foot-high crosses and place some of them on public property.
Fourteen crosses sit alongside state highways or on the lawn outside a UHP office.
The trooper's name, rank and badge number are printed on a 6-foot crossbar, and a large depiction of the UHP's beehive symbol hangs below where the two bars meet. The first cross was erected in 1998 on private property and 13 others were added later, most of them on public property. The memorials are privately funded and owned by the UHPA, while the state owns the public land on which some of them sit.
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