By Annette Semerdjian
United States District Judge Christina Snyder ruled last Thursday, April 7, that the 2014 decision by Los Angeles County Supervisors to include a cross in the county seal was unconstitutional.
A coalition of religious leaders and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Southern California sued the Los Angeles County of Supervisors and County Chief Executive Officer William T. Fujioka after the reinstatement of a Latin cross to the seal back in 2014.
In last Thursday’s court order, Snyder stated that the cross “places the county’s power, prestige and purse behind a single religion, Christianity, without making any such benefit available on an equal basis to those with secular objectives or alternative sectarian views.”
This was not the first time the Los Angeles Board of Supervisors wanted a cross on the county seal, but opted or obliged to its removal. More than a decade ago, in 2004, when the seal looked quite different, a cross was depicted over the Hollywood Bowl. After the removal of this cross due to lawsuit threats from the ACLU, the board decided to bring it back in 2014, this time via an updated depiction of the San Gabriel Mission, which added a cross to the top of its structure back in 2009.
County supervisors Mike Antonovich and Don Knabe led the 2014 motion to restore the Latin cross to the county seal. Antonovich commented in last week’s ruling that removal of the cross, “ignores historical and architectural reality,” considering the 2009 construction of a cross atop San Gabriel Mission. “The court failed to see that the board corrected the inaccurate depiction of the San Gabriel Mission on the seal with an architecturally accurate version that featured a small cross,”Antonovich later stated. In other words, proponents of the 2014 motion argue that the inclusion of a cross above the San Gabriel Mission is necessary to ensure that the image is architecturally and historically accurate to the actual building.
Yet, in the ACLU’s 2004 letter to the board’s initial consideration to the restore the cross, they stated the cross “reflects an impermissible endorsement of Christianity” versus other religions by the government. Just in last week’s court hearing, over a decade later, the plaintiffs accused the county board of favoring “the Christian religion over all other religions and divides county residents by religion and by adherence or non-adherence to religious beliefs.”
“The purpose of any seal is to reflect the culture and history of a region,” Knabe added in defense of the board’s decision. “Courts have ruled that municipal seals can include religious symbols when it depicts a historical fact or rendering.” Other municipal seals in fact have crosses included in their seals, such as the counties of San Benito and Ventura, as well as the City of San Luis Obispo.
Although the 2014 decision to add the cross to the county’s seal may not have been as blatant as when the former 2004 seal depicted it randomly floating above the Hollywood Bowl, controversy still ensued. The ACLU seemed determined, as they were over a decade ago, to keep religious symbolism, of the sort, out of official government seals and representations of its counties.
Supervisor Antonovich said he would support an appeal if the board chooses to move forward with further action, but the ACLU may very well contest the decision, as they have in the past.
