The Los Angeles County seal with cross, left, and without. (AP photos)A judge has ruled that attempts by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors to place a cross on the county seal are unconstitutional.
The ruling Thursday, in U.S. District Court, supports complaints brought by the ACLU and religious leaders and scholars who argued that putting a Latin cross on the county seal would officially promote Christianity above other faiths.
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Citing case law, the ruling states that “Specifically, the Court finds that in modifying the 2004 Seal by adding a Latin cross—even if only as a relatively small symbol situated atop an image of the San Gabriel Mission—the County has violated the No Aid Clause of the Califoia Constitution by (1) ‘devoting (the County’s) financial resources’ and (2) lending its ‘power and prestige’ to the ‘sectarian purpose’ of adding to its official seal the primary symbol of one religion — Christianity — to the exclusion of others.”
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