Atheists’ protest sale of 103-foot cross ignored

SAN FRANCISCO — Without comment, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to review a challenge by atheists protesting San Francisco’s sale of a 103-foot cross in a city-owned park. San Francisco sold about a half acre of land and the cross for $26,000 at Mount Davidson Park.

The Council of Armenian-American Organizations of Northern California purchased the site and plans to use the land and cross as a memorial to Armenians killed in Ottoman Turkey in 1915. San Francisco originally sold the land 13 years ago when a judge ruled city ownership was an unconstitutional endorsement of religion. Atheists, in seeking Supreme Court review, said San Francisco favored groups wanting to keep the cross and that San Francisco did not properly inform the public about the sale.