(AgapePress) - California's Fourth District Court of Appeals has ruled the referendum vote on and transfer of the veterans memorial known as the "Mount Soledad Cross" from the City of San Diego to the federal government was legal. The deciding judges in the case, Paulson v. Abdelnour, say a previous ruling should not have second-guessed the city's voters.

On behalf of the group San Diegans for the Mount Soledad National War Memorial, Thomas More Law Center attorney Charles LiMandri argued in defense of the controversial memorial, which features a controversial concrete cross that stands 43 feet tall from its base.

The Fourth District court's ruling reversed a decision from the trial court Judge Patricia Cowett that the transfer referendum, known as Proposition A, was unconstitutional. In that judge's opinion, LiMandri explains, "somehow the voters transferring the land from the City of San Diego to the federal government constituted some type of unconstitutional preference for the Christian religion over other religions."

However, the Law Center attorney points out, the three-judge panel of the appeals court disagreed, saying San Diego citizens were informed about the cross issue before the vote on the ballot initiative. In the court's opinion, the vote was about letting San Diegans weigh in on the matter, not about forcing government support of religion.

"The court assumed the people were informed," LiMandri asserts. But the panel members were "not going to assume the people who voted 76 percent in favor of Proposition A had some type of unconstitutional purpose in so doing," he says. Meanwhile, he notes, the panel also chastised Judge Cowett for basing her ruling against Proposition A partly on the fact that the City of San Diego was being represented by an attorney who worked for a Christian law firm.

The Thomas More Law Center attorney sees this ruling by the Fourth District Court of Appeals as an important and overdue vindication of the will of the people. "What we see here in this decision is really a great victory for democracy," he observes. "Finally, we're seeing an appellate court give due deference to the voters."

LiMandri, who serves as the West Coast regional director for the Law Center, remarks that he and the pro-family legal firm are pleased with the panel's decision that the transfer of the Mount Soledad Cross is in fact constitutional. He says this ruling protects the will of the people and their desire to preserve a historical veteran's memorial for future generations.