What exactly does the cross stand for, and who gets to decide?

The Supreme Court will wrestle with the question on Wednesday morning when it hears oral arguments in American Legion v. American Humanity Association. The case is ostensibly about a World War I monument in suburban Maryland that’s shaped like a four-story crucifix. What the justices will ultimately decide is how much latitude the government should get in showing favoritism toward particular faiths. Running through the dispute is a familiar question at this moment in American politics: How should a country grapple with the symbols of its turbulent history?

At issue in the case itself is a 40-foot concrete Latin cross that stands in the traffic island of a Maryland highway between Washington, D.C., and Baltimore. Community leaders in Bladensburg, Maryland, erected it in 1925 as a memorial to local soldiers who had died during the first World War. In 1961, the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission acquired both the cross and the sliver of land upon which it rests. State officials cited concerns about the cross’s impact on traffic visibility when they assumed responsibility for it, and taxpayers have paid for its maintenance and care ever since.

The American Humanist Association filed a lawsuit against the commission in 2012 on behalf of local residents who oppose the cross, arguing that its placement violates the First Amendment’s prohibition of the establishment of religion. For more than 50 years, federal courts have used the Establishment Clause to prohibit state and local governments from favoring one faith over another, or any faith over none at all. The American Legion, which originally built the cross, intervened in the lawsuit and argued that the monument’s upkeep was a permissible use of government funds.

Persuading the courts that a four-story cross in the middle of a public highway doesn’t show religious favoritism turned out to be a tall order. Last October, a three-judge panel in the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled against the monument in a 2-1 decision. “The Latin cross is the core symbol of Christianity,” Judge Stephanie Thacker wrote for the majority. “And here, it is 40 feet tall; prominently displayed in the center of one of the busiest intersections in Prince George’s County, Maryland; and maintained with thousands of dollars in government funds. Therefore, we hold that the purported war memorial breaches the ‘wall of separation between Church and State.’”