Removal of cross on seal stands (Los Angeles)

[Khephra]

Removal of cross on seal stands

By Troy Anderson, Staff Writer

Despite passionate pleas from an overflow crowd of 2,000, Los Angeles County's Board of Supervisors refused Tuesday to back down on their decision to remove a tiny Christian cross on the official seal because of a legal threat from the ACLU.

The 3-2 vote came only hours after a private legal foundation filed a lawsuit against the county in federal court in Los Angeles, seeking to prevent the removal of the cross which was part of a design adopted nearly 50 years ago.

The standing-room-only audience - the largest crowd to attend a county supervisors' meeting in recent decades - included people of many faiths and some who espoused no faith. They were united in opposing removal of the cross. Some held signs that read "Jews for the L.A. County Seal," "Buddhists for the Seal" and "Stop the ACLU Nazis."

"This is a religious frenzy," said Supervisor Yvonne Brathwaite Burke, who voted with Supervisors Zev Yaroslavsky and Gloria Molina to uphold the board's decision of last week to negotiate a solution acceptable to the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California.

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