A federal court ruled Thursday that the Los Angeles County supervisors violated the Constitution in 2014 when they voted to restore a small cross to the county seal. The cross appeared on a depiction of a historic mission building.
The plaintiffs, who included a coalition of liberal religious leaders, sued the county on the grounds that the cross violated the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment. The court, agreed, and added that the seal violated the No Aid Clause of the California constitution, which prevents the government from conferring a “sectarian” benefit.
Judge Christina A. Snyder, a Bill Clinton appointee, presided.
The 2014 seal replaced one approved in 2004, which had dropped a cross from the seal after the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) objected. After a contentious debate, the cross was added, as a supposedly historic symbol.
The U.S. District Court for the Western Division of the Central District of California granted a permanent injunction against the seal. The key was not just the presence of a cross on the seal — which might have been tolerable if it had been continued from an earlier use — but the fact that the Board specifically decided to add the cross. Though there was a secular reason for adding the cross, i.e. to show history, that did not blunt its sectarian meaning, the court said.
Judge Snyder rejected an argument by the plaintiffs that the Board had violated the No Preference Clause of the state constitution, but found that it did violate the federal Establishment Clause, noting that a “reasonable, objective observer” would see a sectarian purpose in the addition of the cross to the seal, regardless of the official explanation.
The Los Angeles Times reports that the Board of Supervisors was divided in its reaction to the ruling, with retired Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky hailing the decision.
http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2016/04/08/court-los-angeles-seal-cannot-include-cross/
Those that serve within our governments – state and general – were never delegated the authority to ban that symbol. The only legitimate authority that they have is delegated to the individual branches of government and to certain named offices within the branches. It is not delegated to the people who serve within our governments, they are allowed to use it for as long as they do the duties as assigned by the US Constitution and by each state’s Constitution and they take and KEEP the OATH – elected, hired, contracted, etc.
Patrick Henry: “It cannot be emphasized too strongly or too often that this great nation was founded, not by religionists, but by Christians; not on religions, but on the Gospel of Jesus Christ. For this very reason peoples of other faiths have been afforded asylum, prosperity, and freedom of worship here.”
It is very important for all Americans to realize that, as Michael LeMieux says it so well here:
“The Constitution has very little to do with the American citizen. It was written to establish a Federal Government and to place the boundaries by which that government would operate. The constitution was never designed to provide or enumerate the rights of the citizens but to restrain the federal government from meddling in state and ultimately citizen affairs.”
It IS in writing. As Thomas Jefferson said long ago: “Our peculiar security is in the possession of a written Constitution….”
James Madison: “Do not separate text from historical background. If you do, you will have perverted and subverted the Constitution, which can only end in a distorted, bastardized form of illegitimate government.”
Patrick Henry: “It cannot be emphasized too strongly or too often that this great nation was founded, not by religionists, but by Christians; not on religions, but on the Gospel of Jesus Christ. For this very reason peoples of other faiths have been afforded asylum, prosperity, and freedom of worship here.”
I believe that we are here now, where we must replace every single person who serves within our governments, demolish and disband those not constitutional, and arrest and prosecute the Traitors and Domestic Enemies of our nation, legitimate government.
Thomas Jefferson says it in easily understood terms here: “When once a republic is corrupted, there is no possibility of remedying any of the growing evils but by removing the corruption and restoring its lost principles; every other correction is either useless or a new evil.”
banning a lower case t, interesting