The ACLJ said it will file a friend-to-the-court brief on behalf former 9/11 firefighter and first responder Tim Brown in support of the WTC cross, which was installed at the Ground Zero memorial Saturday.

“We will aggressively defend the placement of this cross,” Jay Sekulow, chief counsel of the ACLJ, said in a statement Tuesday. “This memorial, a powerful part of the history of 9-11, serves as a constitutionally-sound reminder of the horrors that occurred nearly a decade ago.”

On Monday, American Atheists filed a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the iconic WTC cross, made up of two intersecting steel beams found intact amid the rubble of the Sept. 11 attacks. The atheist group claims that the cross is a “Christian icon” and an inappropriate “mingling of church and state.”

American Atheists is asking that either the museum allow other faiths to display their own religious symbols or take down the WTC cross. The suit names the museum, Mayor Bloomberg, and New York, among others, as defendants.

Supporters of the WTC cross argue it represents more than a Christian symbol but serves as remembrance of those who died in the terrorist attacks.

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