Washington, D.C. — Following today’s Supreme Court decision to allow a World War I commemorative cross to remain, the Heritage Foundation’s Emilie Kao, director of the DeVos Center for Religion and Civil Society, offered the following response:

“This is a win for all Americans. The Founders envisioned a public square where Americans of all faiths, and even those with no faith, would be free to express their beliefs.”

“Throughout our history, Americans have used religious symbols to commemorate meaningful events—from legislative prayer to observing holidays and expressing the principles of justice.”

“The Bladensburg Peace Cross is a war memorial established by the American Legion and Gold Star mothers to commemorate the sacrifice of American troops in World War I and part of a longstanding, constitutionally sound tradition. The Supreme Court was right to let the cross stand.”

“While the Court decided this case correctly, it did not clarify its own confusing and contradictory standards for deciding other establishment clause cases. Even though four justices criticized the long-discredited 1971 decision in Lemon v. Kurtzman and its ‘shortcomings,’ they did not vote to overturn this distortion of the Constitution."

“The Constitution as written, not the personal views of judges, should guide how the American people express their religious faith in the public square.”