
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, January 14, 1995                   TAG: 9501160040
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A5   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                 LENGTH: Medium

SUPREME COURT TO REVIEW CASE OF KKK CROSS

The Supreme Court agreed Friday to use a dispute over a cross erected by the Ku Klux Klan near the Ohio Statehouse to clarify the right of private citizens to display religious messages on public property.

The justices said they will review a ruling that forced Ohio officials to let the Klan display the cross in a public park near the Statehouse in downtown Columbus during the Christmas 1993 season.

A federal appeals court ruled in the case that in any public forum ``the religious content of private speech is absolutely irrelevant'' and cannot violate the constitutionally required separation of church and state.

Other federal appeals courts, however, have disagreed.

The Supreme Court has provided far from lucid guidance in past rulings. In 1985, the high court split 4-4 when it tried to decide whether a religious group could place a nativity scene in a small Scarsdale, N.Y., park where political and other messages often were displayed.

The confusion in lower courts stems from two distinct lines of cases interpreting the Constitution's First Amendment. One line involves government's relationship with religion; the other involves government's duty to be impartial in allowing the use of any public forum.

One such forum for decades has been the 10-acre park in Columbus known as Capitol Square, adjacent to the state's capitol building.

In recent years, the square has been decorated with a Christmas tree and menorah in December.

In November 1993, the Ohio Realm of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan sought a permit to erect a 10-foot cross as a Christmas display - its effort to put Christ into Christmas.

The Capitol Square Review and Advisory Board, the public agency that regulates uses of the square, refused to issue a permit. The Klan sued and won the right to display its cross for several days.

A federal judge later permanently barred the board from prohibiting the display of a cross. State officials appealed, but the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the judge's ruling.

The appeals court rejected the state's argument that a cross - ``the principal symbol of Christianity'' - located so close to the Statehouse would lead most reasonable people to think the state was endorsing that religion.

by CNB