WASHINGTON – In a remote corner of the Mojave Desert, there's a war memorial dating to the 1930s. On top, there's an 8-foot cross that is, for now, obscured by a plywood box lest anyone driving 900 miles out of their way happen upon it and take offense at the endorsement of religiosity on public land.

The ACLU and others want the cross taken down. The Supreme Court will hear arguments in the case Wednesday.

In Plano, there's a team of conservative lawyers fighting to make sure the cross doesn't go anywhere. Because when there's a legal squabble involving religion in the public square – even in the middle of nowhere – there's a good chance the Liberty Legal Institute will get called in.

"Every community and state in the country has veterans memorials that have religious imagery," said Kelly Shackelford, chief counsel at the institute. "We want the court to address that so that we can put that to bed."

Liberty Legal has a knack for getting in the middle of newsworthy fights, especially – though not exclusively – when a social conservative cause needs a champion in court. The focus is mostly on religious freedom cases.

But not entirely. Last week, for instance, the group agreed to represent Hannah Giles, the woman who posed as a prostitute in a hidden camera sting in which she and her "pimp" talked workers at ACORN, a left-leaning community organizing group, into providing home loan advice.

The scandal has proved politically devastating to ACORN, which sued the filmmakers.

Liberty Legal has just five attorneys on staff. Much of the work is done through a network of 120 litigators in Texas and elsewhere who volunteer time when Shackelford has a case.

The group helped a pastor fend off a defamation suit from a woman whose extramarital affair he divulged to the congregation. It worked on behalf of a Plano third-grader who included a religious message with candy cane pens handed out to classmates.

In one of its most famous cases – one that could inform the Mojave cross case – Liberty Legal represented the donors of a Ten Commandments monument at the state Capitol in Austin.

The Supreme Court ruled, 5-4, that the display was constitutional.

As for the Mojave cross, the Veterans of Foreign Wars erected it on federal land in 1934. No one formally objected until a decade ago. Congress tried to solve the problem through a land swap, and the Obama administration's solicitor general will argue that that solves the problem.

Shackelford's group wants a more sweeping ruling, an unequivocal OK of religious symbols on public land.

"The American Legion, the VFW – they don't want to see these attacks keep coming around the country," he said.

It's only the latest high-profile fight for the Liberty Legal Institute.

This time last year, the firm was trying to quash the Troopergate inquiry in Alaska – the probe of whether then-Gov. Sarah Palin – the GOP vice presidential nominee – had improperly fired the state's public safety director. Shackelford said Palin's politics were irrelevant; he took the case as a favor to an Anchorage lawyer and longtime friend whose wife had recently died and needed help.

"We were just helping a friend," he said.

Right Wing Watch, a project of the left-wing People for the American Way, refers to Liberty Legal as a "right-wing Texas law firm."

As rebuttal, Shackelford cites another case he's working on: a Waxahachie High School student suspended two years ago for wearing a "John Edwards for President '08" T-shirt. The dress code bans any messages other than those promoting school pride, even messages that aren't disruptive, lewd or obscene.

The student lost two rounds in federal court. Shackelford – who supported evangelical Mike Huckabee for president – is finalizing an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.

"We represent a lot of people that I totally disagree with," he said. "We're just trying to preserve the Constitution."

Todd J. Gillman is Washington bureau chief of The Dallas Morning News.