PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) - The home for a six-foot-statue known as Big Mountain Jesus rests with a three-judge appeals panel after a lawyer representing a group of atheists asked for it to be removed from U.S. Forest Service property in Montana.
A federal district judge in 2013 said the Flathead National Forest could reissue a 10-year permit for the statue that has stood along a ski run at the Whitefish Mountain Resort since 1954. The judge, Obama appointee Dana Christensen, said no reasonable observer would conclude the Forest Service was endorsing Christianity by permitting a private party to place it on land it leases from the government.
In hopes of getting the decision reversed, attorney Rich Bolton told the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals panel Tuesday that the statue violates the constitutional prohibition on Congress making any law regarding an establishment of religion.
He said the private ownership of the statue does not trump the constitution's Establishment Clause: "The question is whether there's a perception of religious endorsement."
Bolton maintained there is, and he said the Forest Service only granted the permit to quell public outcry after word spread in 2011 that the statue might be removed.
The Knights of Columbus put up the statue to memorialize soldiers who died while fighting during World War II. The returning veterans who built it were inspired by the mountain shrines and statues they saw during their service in Italy.