This week, Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine and several other attorney generals filed a brief with the U.S. Supreme Court in an effort to stop a court order to alter a cross that honors soldiers who died in World War I.

The monument in question is called the Peace Cross and it was built with private funds in 1925 in Prince George’s County, Maryland. The upkeep of the monument was taken over by the state.

In 2016, the non-profit American Humanist Association filed a lawsuit to have the cross monument destroyed because they felt it violated the separation of church and state.

An appeals court agreed it did, but, rather than destroy the monument, they suggested taking the arms off the cross so it would just be a post.

Why does an old monument cause such concern? Because of the ramifications of the court order beyond Maryland.

If the Supreme Court agrees with the lower court, it means that all monuments on public lands would be stripped of any religious icons or symbols.

In one very specific case, that means Arlington National Cemetery, where America’s honored dead have been laid to rest since 1864, would have to change out 400,000 crosses to headstones.

There are 242 more state and national military cemeteries across the country.

“War memorials are historic touchstones,” DeWine said about the case.

While we can understand the basis of the lawsuit, we can not support what would amount to the dishonoring of hundred of thousands of veterans graves.