San Francisco, USA - A federal appeals court rejected a challenge to Los Angeles County's 2004 decision to remove a cross from the county seal.
In an opinion released Tuesday, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals turned aside claims that deleting the image of the cross was a display of hostility toward Christianity.
The Board of Supervisors voted in 2004 to remove the cross after the American Civil Liberties Union threatened to file a lawsuit claiming the cross was a government endorsement of Christianity.
In June of that year, Ernesto R. Vasquez, a county employee who identified himself in court papers as "a devout Christian," sued the county and the supervisors, alleging they had violated the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment. The clause bars Congress from making law on the establishment of religion.
Specifically, Vasquez charged that the removal of the cross conveyed a state-sponsored hostility toward Christianity.
A federal district court rejected his claims in October 2004, saying Vasquez's challenge on the Establishment Clause had no merit.
In its opinion Tuesday, the appeals court concluded that the county did not violate the Establishment Clause and upheld the lower court's rejection.
"A reasonable observer would not have viewed the defendants' removal of the cross from the seal as an act of hostility towards the Christian religion, or towards religion in general," the appellate court said.