A divided U.S. Supreme Court bolstered efforts to keep a Christian cross erected as a war memorial in a national preserve, reviving a federal law designed to protect the display and declaring that religion has a place in public life.

In a 5-4 decision, the court said a federal judge was wrong to invalidate a federal law that authorized transfer of the land on which the cross sits to a private party. The cross is located in the Mohave National Preserve in California.

The court’s lead opinion, written by frequent swing vote Justice Anthony Kennedy, also questioned the judge’s earlier conclusion that the cross should be removed because it violated the constitutional ban on government establishment of religion.

“The goal of avoiding governmental endorsement does not require eradication of all religious symbols in the public realm,” Kennedy wrote for himself, Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Samuel Alito.