Coinciding with Good Friday, a judge yesterday tossed a suit by a bunch of godless activists who want to block display of the famed “World Trade Center cross” at the planned Sept. 11 Memorial Museum.
Manhattan federal Judge Deborah Batts rejected arguments from American Atheists Inc. that exhibiting the 17-foot-tall, cross-shaped steel beams would violate the First Amendment prohibition on government endorsement of religion.
“Simply because one object, which is one component of a secular exhibition, is religious does not engender endorsement,” Batts wrote.
American Atheists lawyer Edwin Kagin said the group would appeal, noting the cross had been blessed and doused with holy water by a Catholic priest.
“The idea that it’s not put in there for religious reasons is in my view preposterous, and it tends to diminish the sacrifices and contributions of the first responders who were not Christian,” he said.