The Supreme Court/The Supreme Court.iso/pc/ascii/1994/94_780/94_780.zc

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SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES
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No. 94-780
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CAPITOL SQUARE REVIEW AND ADVISORY BOARD,
et al., PETITIONERS v. VINCENT J. PINETTE,
DONNIE A. CARR and KNIGHTS OF THE
KU KLUX KLAN
on writ of certiorari to the united states court
of appeals for the sixth circuit
[June 29, 1995]

  Justice Thomas, concurring.
  I join the Court's conclusion that petitioner's exclusion
of the Ku Klux Klan's cross cannot be justified on
Establishment Clause grounds.  But the fact that the
legal issue before us involves the Establishment Clause
should not lead anyone to think that a cross erected by
the Ku Klux Klan is a purely religious symbol.  The
erection of such a cross is a political act, not a Christian
one.
  There is little doubt that the Klan's main objective is
to establish a racist white government in the United
States.  In Klan ceremony, the cross is a symbol of
white supremacy and a tool for the intimidation and
harassment of racial minorities, Catholics, Jews, Com-
munists, and any other groups hated by the Klan.  The
cross is associated with the Klan not because of religious
worship, but because of the Klan's practice of cross-
burning.  Cross-burning was entirely unknown to the
early Ku Klux Klan, which emerged in some Southern
States during Reconstruction.  W. Wade, The Fiery
Cross: The Ku Klux Klan in America 146 (1987).  The
practice appears to have been the product of Thomas
Dixon, whose book The Clansman formed the story for
the movie, The Birth of a Nation.  See M. Newton & J.
Newton, The Ku Klux Klan: An Encyclopedia 145-146
(1991).  In the book, cross-burning is borrowed from an
-old Scottish rite- (Dixon apparently believed that the
members of the Reconstruction Ku Klux Klan were the
-reincarnated souls of the Clansmen of Old Scotland-)
that the Klan uses to celebrate the execution of a former
slave.  T. Dixon, The Clansman: An Historical Romance
of the Ku Klux Klan 324-326 (1905).  Although the
cross took on some religious significance in the 1920's
when the Klan became connected with certain southern
white clergy, by the postwar period it had reverted to its
original function as an instrument of intimidation.
Wade, supra, at 185, 279.
  To be sure, the cross appears to serve as a religious
symbol of Christianity for some Klan members.  The
hymn -The Old Rugged Cross- is sometimes played
during cross-burnings.  See W. Moore, A Sheet and a
Cross: A Symbolic Analysis of the Ku Klux Klan
287-288 (Ph.D. dissertation, Tulane University, 1975).
But to the extent that the Klan had a message to
communicate in Capitol Square, it was primarily a
political one.  During his testimony before the District
Court, the leader of the local Klan testified that the
cross was seen -as a symbol of freedom, as a symbol of
trying to unite our people.-  App. 150.  The Klan
chapter wished to erect the cross because it was also -a
symbol of freedom from tyranny,- and because it -was
also incorporated in the confederate battle flag.-  Ibid.
Of course, the cross also had some religious connotation;
the Klan leader linked the cross to what he claimed was
one of the central purposes of the Klan: -to establish a
Christian government in America.-  Id., at 142-145.
But surely this message was both political and religious
in nature.
  Although the Klan might have sought to convey a
message with some religious component, I think that the
Klan had a primarily nonreligious purpose in erecting
the cross.  The Klan simply has appropriated one of the
most sacred of religious symbols as a symbol of hate.  In
my mind, this suggests that this case may not have
truly involved the Establishment Clause, although I
agree with the Court's disposition because of the manner
in which the case has come before us.  In the end, there
may be much less here than meets the eye.