WASHINGTON — The city of San Diego won a Supreme Court stay yesterday that blocks the removal of a large cross from city property.

Justice Anthony Kennedy said the temporary stay he authorized earlier this week should protect the cross until the San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals hears arguments this fall in a long-running dispute over the cross.

Kennedy suggested that he and his colleagues may be interested in a broader review of the case.

"The equities here support preserving the status quo while the city's appeal proceeds," he wrote. "Compared to the irreparable harm of altering the memorial and removing the cross, the harm in a brief delay pending the Court of Appeals' expedited consideration of the case seems slight."

A lower court judge had ordered the city to remove the cross or be fined $5,000 a day. The judge ruled that the cross, a symbol of Christianity, was an unconstitutional endorsement of one religion over another.

The 29-foot cross, on a half-acre site atop Mount Soledad in the La Jolla area, had been contested in 1989 by Philip Paulson, a Vietnam veteran and atheist.

The Supreme Court refused three years ago to get involved in the dispute. Since then, Congress agreed to make the area a national veterans memorial, and San Diego residents voted to transfer the land to the federal government.

Kennedy, a California native, said, "Congress' evident desire to preserve the memorial makes it substantially more likely" the high court would agree to hear the case now.