WASHINGTON (AP) _ The Supreme Court has refused to order removal of a congressionally endorsed war memorial cross from its remote site in the California desert.

In a 5-4 vote, the court directed a federal judge to look again at Congress’s plan to transfer the patch of federal land beneath the 7-foot-tall cross made of metal pipe to private ownership.

Federal courts had barred the land transfer as insufficient to eliminate concern about a religious symbol on public land in the Mojave National Preserve.

The justices’ ruling signals a greater willingness to allow religious symbols on public land.

The Mojave cross was erected in 1934 by the Veterans of Foreign Wars as a memorial to World War I dead. It has been encased in plywood for the past several years to comply with court rulings.