1. Define concur/concurrence and dissent used as nouns.

2. a) List the justices who concurred with the majority that the cross to honor WWI soldiers should remain.
b) List the justices who dissented.

3. What happened after a California Congressman arranged to sell the acre of land surrounding the Mojave Cross to the VFW, thus placing the cross on private land, after a federal court ruled in Mr. Buono's favor and ordered the removal of the cross?

4. Joseph Infranco, senior counsel of the Alliance Defense Fund, which filed a friend-of-the-court brief defending the cross said "A passive monument acknowledging our nation's religious heritage cannot be interpreted as an establishment of religion. To make that accusation, one must harbor both a hostility to the nation's history and a deep misunderstanding of the First Amendment." Do you agree with Mr. Infranco? Explain your answer.

5. Justice Anthony Kennedy writing for the majority, said "The goal of avoiding governmental endorsement does not require eradication of all religious symbols in the public realm." He wrote further that World War I veterans first erected the cross as a memorial to fallen comrades, and more than religion alone, "it evokes thousands of small crosses in foreign fields marking the graves of Americans who fell in battles, battles whose tragedies are compounded if the fallen are forgotten."

Justice Stevens wrote for the dissent "Congressional action, taken after due deliberation, that honors our fallen soldiers merits our highest respect. As far as I can tell, however, it is unprecedented in the nation's history to designate a bare, unadorned cross as the national war memorial for a particular group of veterans."

The Wall Street Journal reports that veterans, some of whom had moved to the region for health reasons, first erected a cross at the site in 1934 and it was often used for Easter services.

Do you think the Supreme Court made the appropriate decision? Explain your answer.