Sacred or Profane? The Cross at Mount Davidson Park, San Francisco

Abstract

civil liberties organizations and the city of San Francisco over the fate of a 103-foot concrete cross built by the city in 1934 as a public monument in Mt. Davidson Park. Located atop the city's highest hill, the cross is visible for miles around the Bay area. In July 1990 Americans United for the Separation of Church and State, the American Jewish Congress (AJC), and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) filed a suit against the city of San Francisco in the Federal District Court of Northern California.1 They challenged the constitutionality of locat-