Suit Seeks Return of State Tourism Grant To Restore Bald Knob Cross

Activist Rob Sherman yesterday filed a lawsuit in an Illinois federal district court seeking to force Friends of the Cross to return to the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity a $20,000 grant it received to replace and install the exterior panels on the 11-foot high Bald Knob Cross in the Ozarks in southern Illinois.(Posting on Sherman's website; AP report). The complaint (full text) in Sherman v. State of Illinois, (CD IL, filed 8/12/2010), contends that the grant violates the federal Establishment Clause as well as Illinois Constitution's Art. I, Sec. 3 (religious freedom) and Art. X, Sec. 3 (no public funds for sectarian purposes). The grant was awarded as part of the state's efforts to promote tourism. (See prior posting).