Ken L. Salazar, Secretary of the Interior, et al. v. Frank Buono (559 U.S. 700)
U.S. Supreme Court · decided April 28, 2010 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)
- Citation
- 559 U.S. 700 · 130 S. Ct. 1803
- Decided
- April 28, 2010
- Term
- October Term 2009
- Vote
- 5–4
- Majority author
- Justice Kennedy
- Issue area
- First Amendment
- Disposition
- Reversed and remanded
- Outcome
- Petitioning party won
- Ideological direction
- Conservative
Opinion excerpt
Justice Kennedy announced the judgment of the Court and delivered an opinion, in which The Chief Justice joins and Justice Alito joins in part. In 1934, private citizens placed a Latin cross on a rock outcropping in a remote section of the Mojave Desert. Their purpose and intent was to honor American soldiers who fell in World War I The original cross deteriorated over time, but a reconstructed one now stands at the same place. It is on federal land. The Court is asked to consider a challenge, not to the first placement of the cross or its continued presence on federal land, but to a statute that would transfer the cross and the land on which it stands to a private party. Department of Defense Appropriations Act, 2004, Pub. L. 108-87, § 8121(a), 117 Stat. 1100. The District Court permanently enjoined the Government from implementing the statute. The Court of Appeals affirmed. We conclude that its judgment was in error. I A The Mojave National Preserve (Preserve) spans approximately 1.6 million acres in southeastern California. The Preserve is nestled within the Mojave Desert, whose picturesque but rugged territory comprises 25,000 square miles, exceeding in size the combined area of the Nation’s five smallest States. See Merriam-Webster's Geographical Dictionary 755, 1228-1280 (3d ed. 1997). Just over 90 percent of the land in the Preserve is federally owned, with the rest…
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