When the government buys property that for years has featured a memorial with a large cross on it honoring those killed in war, must it remove the cross to “separate church and state?”

Common sense says of course not, and the Supreme Court will hear arguments about it on Thursday. The case, which we’ve discussed before, involves a 40-foot memorial honoring 49 people of Prince George’s County, Md., who died in World War I. The apt words, “endurance,” “valor,” “devotion,” and “courage,” are inscribed on the memorial, which was paid for in 1919 with money raised by 10 mothers who lost their sons. In 1961, the town of Bladensburg bought the land for traffic safety improvements.