Whitefish mount Jesus statue to stay in place

A statue of Jesus that has spent more than 60 years overlooking a northwestern Montana ski hill is there to stay as an anti-religion group says it will not appeal their case for its removal. In August, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected arguments from a group of atheists and agnostics that placing the statue on U.S. Forest Service land violates the separation of church and state. The Daily Inter Lake reported that the Freedom From Religion Foundation had until this week to appeal the case to the U.S. Supreme Court after the Court of Appeals denied a request to re-hear the case in November. Officials say they will not. The Knights of Columbus placed the statue on Big Mountain in 1955 as a memorial to World War II soldiers/ Associated Press.