ELR Citation: ELR 20132
No(s). 08-472 (U.S. Apr 28, 2010)

The U.S. Supreme Court reversed and remanded a court order precluding the government from transferring to the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) a cross and the federal land on which it stood in exchange for privately owned land elsewhere in the Mojave National Preserve. VFW members placed the cross in the preserve to honor American soldiers who died in World War I. A visitor of the preserve who was offended by the presence of the cross filed suit under the Establishment Clause and sought an injunction requiring the government to remove the cross. A district court granted the injunction. While the government's appeal was pending, Congress passed the Department of Defense Appropriations Act, 2004, a portion of which directed the Secretary of the Interior to engage in a land transfer with the VFW. The Ninth Circuit then affirmed the district court's injunction. The visitor returned to the district court, challenging the statutory land transfer. The district court held that the land transfer was an invalid attempt to keep the cross on display and granted the visitor's motion to enforce the 2002 injunction. The Ninth Circuit affirmed. The Supreme Court held that the visitor had standing to maintain the instant action because a party that obtains a judgment in its favor acquires a "judicially cognizable" interest in ensuring compliance with that judgment. However, the district court erred in enjoining the government from implementing the land-transfer statute on the premise that the relief was necessary to protect the visitor's rights under the 2002 injunction. A court may order an injunction only after taking into account all the circumstances bearing on the need for prospective relief. Here, the district court did not engage in the appropriate inquiry. The matter was therefore remanded. Kennedy, J., announced the judgment of the Court and delivered an opinion, in which Roberts, C.J., joined, and in which Alito, J., joined in part. Roberts, C.J., filed a concurring opinion. Alito, J., filed an opinion concurring in part and concurring in the judgment. Scalia, J., filed an opinion concurring in the judgment, in which Thomas, J., joined. Stevens, J., filed a dissenting opinion, in which Ginsburg and Sotomayor, JJ., joined. Breyer, J., filed a dissenting opinion.