Talk about riding circuit

Justice Kennedy has acted in his capacity as Circuit Justice to stay, pending decision by the Ninth Circuit, a District Court order that the City of San Diego remove a Latin cross from a city-owned veterans' memorial at Mount Soledad.  The Ninth Circuit earlier refused to grant a stay pending the appeal, which is due to be heard on an expedited basis in October.  Especially interesting in Justice Kennedy's written intervention is the suggestion that, if things don't go as hoped, the Court might now grant cert. in litigation it has shied away from before.  A friend reminds me that the California constitutional law at issue in the litigation doesn't favor those who would keep a cross standing on Mt. Soledad.