American Atheists, a nonprofit group based in New Jersey, has sued the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, the World Trade Center Memorial Foundation and Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, among others, demanding that the World Trade Center Cross be removed from the September 11 Memorial and Museum.

According to news reports, the plaintiffs allege that the cross has actually made them physically ill:  “The plaintiffs, and each of them, have suffered, are suffering, and will continue to suffer damages, both physical and emotional, from the existence of the challenged cross. Named plaintiffs have suffered, inter alia, dyspepsia, symptoms of depression, headaches, anxiety, and mental pain and anguish from the knowledge that they are made to feel officially excluded from the ranks of citizens who were directly injured by the 9/11 attack and the lack of acknowledgement of the more than 1,000 non- Christian individuals who were killed at the World Trade Center.”

The symbol in question is a cross-shaped steel beam found amid the rubble in the days after the terrorist attacks of September 11th.  For the past several years it has been displayed outside a nearby Catholic church; recently it was moved to the site of the National September 11 Memorial and Museum.  American Atheists claim that because the cross is a religious symbol of Christianity and the museum is partly government financed and is on government property, the cross’s inclusion in the museum violates the United States Constitution and state civil rights law.  “The challenged cross constitutes an unlawful attempt to promote a specific religion on governmental land,” the lawsuit charged.  Plaintiffs are seeking removal of the cross or “equal representation.”

“If the cross is presented in a way that ties it to the history of its discovery and the religious perception of it by some firefighters or neighbors, then the museum would be framing it as a historical artifact, rather than as a symbol deserving religious reverence,” said Ira C. Lupu, a professor at the George Washington University Law School and an authority on faith and the law. “I think if it were framed in that way, it could be effectively defended on the merits.”

Joseph C. Daniels, president and chief executive of the National September 11 Memorial and Museum, said that the cross was clearly of historical significance and that the lawsuit was “without merit.”

—Sources:  National Review and The New York Times