Crosses alongside Utah highways and roads that memorialize fallen state troopers are unconstitutional and must be removed, a federal appeals court ruled Wednesday in a case that could end up before the U.S. Supreme Court.A three-judge panel of the U.S. Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously ruled that the crosses, which are 12 feet tall, six feet wide and have state approval, amount to an unconstitutional government establishment of religion. Each cross has the trooper's name, rank and badge number, along with the year he or she died, biographical information and a picture. It also has the Utah Highway Patrol official symbol. The program, started in 1998, places the cross as near as possible to the death site.The organization American Atheists filed the suit, with one of the plaintiffs even saying he occasionally altered his travel route to avoid seeing a cross. Supporters of the crosses ...read more: http://baptistpress.com/BPnews.asp?ID=33539
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