A group of United States marines had, with good intentions, dragged a 13-foot tall cross for 2 hours up to the top of a hill in Camp Pendleton, a major Marine Corps base in Southern California, on the 10th of November. Then on Veterans Day (November 11) at exactly 11. A.M. on the 11th day of the 11th month, the group erected the cross to honor their fallen brothers of the 2nd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment who were killed in action in Iraq. There was a previous cross erected on the same spot in 2003.

One problem: this Christian cross was erected on government and public property which violates the U.S. Constitution of the separation of Church and State. It also insults other dead and currently breathing military service members who were and are not Christian but are Muslims, Jews, atheists, or whoever else.

Camp Pendleton officials say that there will be consideration on taking the cross down. It is more than likely that this cross will be taken down considering that many other “cross cases” ended up in favor of secularism.

The nearby city of San Diego’s Mt. Soledad cross was taken down after the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals declared it unconstitutional in 2010.

In Utah, tall highway crosses, that were dedicated to fallen officers, ended up being removed due to the violation of both Utah’s and the United States’ Constitutions.

National attention swung unto the World Trade Center cross dispute when the American Atheists organization faced actual death threats and negative attention after it attempted to take down the cross.