NEW ORLEANS (AP) -- The American Civil Liberties Union filed a federal lawsuit Tuesday demanding the removal of signs outside a southeastern Louisiana town that proclaim: ``Jesus is Lord over Franklinton.''
ACLU officials said public money was used to put up the signs on state roads, violating the constitutional separation of church and state.
``Can you imagine the hostility that Jews, Muslims, members of other minority faiths and non-believers must feel when living in or passing through that community?'' asked Linton Carney, who first saw the signs in July while driving through Franklinton, 55 miles north of New Orleans. He said he has no religious affiliation.
The lawsuit names the town, its mayor and surrounding Washington Parish as defendants.
Mayor Earle Brown denied any knowledge of the signs. Parish President M.E. Taylor, however, admitted that area churches paid for the signs and parish road crews erected them. Taylor said they will be removed if judged illegal.
``Myself and some ministers and other Christians will pull them up ourselves and put them on private property,'' Taylor said.
He added that the ACLU was ``splitting hairs'' but Joe Cook, executive director of the ACLU of Louisiana, said the law is clear.
``Public officials in that parish know the law. Unfortunately, they decided to engage in endorsement of religion,'' Cook said.
Last week, ACLU officials threatened to sue the mayor of Inglis, Fla., unless she removes her proclamation banning Satan within the town limits from posts at the town's entrances.
The mayor, a devout Christian, wrote the proclamation on Halloween night. It was typed on town stationary and affixed with the town seal.