In a small town outside San Francisco, California, a legal battle over religious freedom is escalating.

A small group of Christians, along with the Albany Lions Club, have launched a renewed attempt to re-erect a 28-foot-tall cross that was torn down last year.

As CBN News reported, the metal and plexiglass cross has illuminated the town of Albany Hill at Easter and Christmas for 52 years.

However, the monument came under fire in 2015 when East Bay atheists began questioning the constitutionality of the cross, claiming it “symbolizes the favoring of one religion over others, offends some members of the city's diverse communities, and commemorate the Ku Klux Klan cross burnings in the East Bay.” Hill in the 1920s and is an eyesore.

In 2017, the mayor of Albany also criticized the Lions Club for lighting the cross to mark the 9/11 anniversary.

“I want to reiterate that neither the City Council nor the City of Albany in any way advocates the lighting of the cross for religious or nationalistic reasons, or supports its continued presence on public property,” then-Mayor Peggy McQuaid said in a 2017 statement.

***Please sign in CBN Newsletter and download it CBN News app to ensure you continue to receive the latest news from a distinctly Christian perspective.***

In 2018, a judge ruled that the cross violated the Establishment Clause of the U.S. Constitution.

The city was forced to either sell the small parcel of land on which the cross rested to a private party or purchase an easement through eminent domain and remove the cross.

At that point, a district judge granted the city's request for temporary possession of the cross while litigation over the eminent domain claim was still ongoing.

The cross was quietly removed from the property and put into storage last June while the legal battle continued.

However, in January, an Alameda County Superior Court judge approved the removal of the cross on Albany Hill, saying the Lions Club could not claim free exercise of religion.

“The Lions Club cites no authority to assert that it has the right to express itself in a manner that violates the Establishment Clause,” the decision states.

The Albany Lions Club, with the help of the Pacific Justice Institute (PJI), is fighting back and filing a lawsuit to have the cross returned to the property.

“The court did not recognize that the Lions Club has a property right to display the cross,” PJI said in a statement to CBN News.

Brad Dacus, president and founder of the Pacific Justice Institute, added that the state is blatantly attacking expressions of faith and hope.

“The First Amendment protects individuals and private entities from such blatant governmental hostility toward those who seek to express symbols of faith and hope. At PJI, we are committed to defending these constitutionally protected expressions,” he said.

Kevin Pope, president of the Lions Club, told The Washington Times last year that city leaders clearly do not want a monument commemorating the Christian faith.

“The city council seems to hate what it represents and instead of taking a sum of money for the land and selling it to the Lions Club, they have decided to spend, in our opinion, probably close to a million dollars to solve this problem rather than doing the easy thing,” Mr. Pope said. “That’s how much they hate it.”