An attorney who is involved in defending the Jesus statue on Big Mountain says she is confident that legal precedents aimed at discouraging the government from being “hostile” to religion will help the Flathead National Forest prevail, allowing for the statue to remain where it is.

CeCe Heil provided an update on the case during a town hall meeting  led by Rep. Denny Rehberg, R-Mont., at the Veterans of Foreign Wars post in Whitefish Monday afternoon. The meeting was attended by about 60 people, including a special guest, Arnold “Arnie” Funk, a 91-year-old 10th Mountain Division veteran who served in Italy during World War II.

The Flathead chapter of the Knights of Columbus, a Catholic fraternal organization that maintained the statue for nearly 60 years, contends that the Jesus statue is a memorial to World War II veterans and the 10th Mountain Division in particular.

A Wisconsin-based group called the Freedom From Religion Foundation sued the Flathead National Forest earlier this year, arguing that because the statue is located on a small parcel of leased National Forest land, it constitutes a violation of the First Amendment’s Establishment Clause.

The clause states that “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion.”

Heil, a Virginia-based senior counsel for the American Center for Law and Justice, said case law will favor the Flathead Forest, as will other aspects of the case.

The American Center for Law and Justice, an organization that takes a particular interest in First Amendment cases, is intervening in this case on the Flathead Forest’s behalf.

“This is one that has definitely been on our radar,” Heil said by teleconference, adding that her organization is mainly interested in making “sure the Establishment Clause isn’t interpreted wrongly.”

Heil said in past cases, groups like the Freedom From Religion Foundation have been found to have no standing in court with similar litigation.

“We think, first of all, they are going to have a lack of standing” with the court, Heil said.

She said the argument can be made that Whitefish Mountain Resort actually has more control over the 25- by 25-foot parcel of leased land than the Flathead Forest does.

Other factors that will come into play is the statue’s historic significance, its purpose as a memorial and the fact that its location has gone unchallenged for nearly 60 years.

Heil said there are precedents where the Supreme Court and lower courts have found that while the government should be neutral on religion, it shouldn’t be hostile to religious symbols that are often intertwined with public places.

“The government’s position in this case is well supported,” Heil said.

A woman in the audience pointed out that the Freedom From Religion Foundation is comprised of atheists who are effectively imposing their own religion or belief system on the public in a hostile fashion.

“They are definitely active and on the lookout to shut down religion,” Heil said.

A trial for the case is scheduled to begin in March of 2013 in the Missoula court of U.S. District Judge Dana Christensen.