Salazar v. Buono
United States Supreme Court
599 U.S. 700, 130 S.Ct. 1803, 176 L.Ed.2d 634 (2010)
- Written by Rose VanHofwegen, JD
Facts
In 1934 the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) erected a Latin cross on Sunrise Rock in the Mojave National Preserve to honor fallen World War I soldiers. Members of the public viewed the cross as commemorative, gathered regularly to pay their respects, and repeatedly replaced the cross instead of letting it deteriorate. In 2002 regular visitor and retired National Park Service employee Frank Buono (plaintiff) sued the secretary of the interior, Ken Salazar (defendant), claiming that the cross violated the Establishment Clause, and obtained an injunction requiring its removal. While an appeal remained pending, Congress passed a law to transfer the cross and Sunrise Rock to the VFW in exchange for privately owned land elsewhere in the preserve, specifying that Sunrise Rock would revert to the government unless maintained as a World War I memorial. Buono returned to federal district court to enjoin the transfer law and enforce the injunction to remove the cross. The court enjoined the transfer as an unconstitutional attempt to keep the cross on display. After the appellate court affirmed, the Supreme Court granted review.
Rule of Law
Issue
Holding and Reasoning (Kennedy, J.)
Concurrence (Scalia, J.)
Concurrence (Alito, J.)
What to do next…
Here's why 812,000 law students have relied on our case briefs:
- Written by law professors and practitioners, not other law students. 46,300 briefs, keyed to 988 casebooks. Top-notch customer support.
- The right amount of information, includes the facts, issues, rule of law, holding and reasoning, and any concurrences and dissents.
- Access in your classes, works on your mobile and tablet. Massive library of related video lessons and high quality multiple-choice questions.
- Easy to use, uniform format for every case brief. Written in plain English, not in legalese. Our briefs summarize and simplify; they don’t just repeat the court’s language.
