An aggrieved atheist has won his longtime battle against a 43-foot cross that stood on a mountaintop in the San Diego area. AP reports:

A 43-foot cross is to be removed from public land after a 15-year legal battle came to an end this week when the City Council rejected a proposal to transfer the land around the cross to the National Park Service.

Two local congressmen had inserted a provision in a spending bill to have the land transferred as a last-ditch effort to keep the cross on top of Mount Soledad, where it has stood in some form for 90 years.

The bill was signed by President Bush, but City Attorney Michael Aguirre issued a legal opinion last week saying the donation would be for a religious purpose and therefore infringe on state law. The City Council rejected the transfer on Tuesday.

“For us to transfer our cross from city ownership to federal ownership leaves us in the same constitutional position,” Councilman Scott Peters said.

Several churches have expressed interest in a taking the cross, including one that is within 1,000 feet of its current location, said Jim McElroy, an attorney representing Philip Paulson, who brought the lawsuit challenging the cross. He expects it to be moved within 90 days.

The cross has been a point of contention since 1989 when Paulson, an atheist, sued the city, claiming its presence on city property violates separation of church and state provisions in the U.S. and state constitutions.

San Diego residents, Christian and non-Christian alike, are in an uproar over Paulson’s ridiculous attack. The San Diego Union Tribune entertainment guide provides this short history of the cross’s placement at Mount Soledad:

It’s a story dating back to 1913, when Pacific Beach residents built one out of redwood and erected it atop the mountain. Thieves allegedly removed it 10 years later, and its replacement, created in 1934, was felled by high winds in 1952. Soon after, the Mount Soledad Memorial Association erected the current cross to commemorate soldiers of the Korean and two world wars.

The cross, in other words, carries meaning for the city beyond its religious symbolism. Mark Slomka, pastor of Mount Soledad Presbyterian Church, which has been considered an alternate site for the cross, told the Washington Post last December:

“That cross is not just a religious symbol. It’s a symbol of coming of age and of remembrance.”

No more, thanks to the oh-so-tolerant left.

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Related:

The Easter Bunny: Endangered Species?

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Background:

The Thomas More Law Center has worked tirelessly to save the cross.
More views of the cross here.
Information on protests at KOGO talk show host Rodger Hedgecock’s site.
Vermont recently experienced a similar cross war blogged here.
These cases are yet more examples of what David Limbaugh copiously documented in his excellent book, Persecution.