David Hernandez County Seal Update
The article below appeared on the front page of the LA Daily News Tuesday. Jeffers Dodge and I spent the morning at the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in Pasadena with Thomas More Law Center Attorney Robert J. Muise. He argued a good case in font of the three panel judges. All aspects of the case were covered and we will have to wait for the outcome. Troy Anderson also attended the hearing so look for another LA Seal story to follow.The daily news is conducting an online poll "Do you think a cross on the county seal violates the Constitution?" Please go to www.dailynews.com and take the poll today!
Thank you for all your continued support,
David Hernandez, Chairman
Committee to Support the LA County Seal
www.savetheseal.net
P.S.
Please don't forget, if you can we must fund our campaign with contributions from our supporters.
Posted by Mayor Sam @ 10/18/2006 12:01:00 AM
4 Comments:
David Hernandez is such a great guy. He usually is fighting for the underdog and he has such passion. At least he follows his heart and knows when something is not right he fights it. We need more people like him in this city.
This battle is a loser. He tried and failed to get the measure on the ballot twice.
Nobody cares but you David.
the only cause worth fighting for is a lost cause.
PASADENA - Cast into the heart of a nationwide controversy over the constitutionality of religious symbols in public areas, three members of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals heard oral arguments Tuesday regarding a lawsuit challenging a decision to remove the cross from Los Angeles County's official seal.
The cross had been part of the county seal since 1957 but after the American Civil Liberties Union threatened a lawsuit, the Board of Supervisors voted in 2004 to change the seal.
The move set off a firestorm of protest and the Thomas More Law Center filed a lawsuit against the county on behalf of county Department of Public Works employee Ernesto R. Vasquez, alleging that the decision violated the Constitution by conveying a state-sponsored message of disapproval of and hostility toward Christianity.
The county has since spent an estimated $700,000 replacing seals on thousands of government buildings, vehicles and uniforms.
The new cross-less seal features a mission and an American Indian, who replaced the goddess Pomona.
Robert Muise, an attorney with the law center, argued that a clause in the First Amendment that prohibits the government from establishing a state religion also forbids the government from taking actions that convey a message of hostility toward religion.
He noted that the history of the nation and the county are inseparable from the history of religion and pointed out that the U.S. Supreme Court has long acknowledged that Americans are a religious people whose institutions presuppose a "Superior Being."
Muise argued that this historical fact is often represented publicly by such phrases as "In God We Trust" and the image of the eye of God in a pyramid representing the Christian trinity on money.
He also noted the religious connotations of the names of such cities as Los Angeles and San Francisco, crosses marking the graves of veterans buried at national cemeteries and the small cross that once appeared on the county seal.
"There are numerous cases we cited in our brief where the U.S. Supreme Court and other courts have made it plain, including the 9th Circuit, that the Establishment Clause not only prohibits government acts that approve of religion, but also government acts that disapprove of religion, or convey a message to a reasonable observer of hostility toward religion," Muise said after the hearing.
But Senior Deputy County Counsel Jennifer Lehman argued that Vasquez does not have the right to dictate - through litigation - what historical or cultural symbols the county places on its seal.
She said the county chose to redesign its seal to exclude a symbol that some courts have found to be unconstitutional.
"I don't think a reasonable observer would see replacing a Christian cross with a mission as a message of hostility toward Christians," Lehman said.
Judge Richard R. Clifton said he has real difficulty with the notion that replacing the cross with a mission could be construed as an anti-Christian statement.
"I happen to be a Christian," Clifton said. "I'm not offended that they decided to put up a mission instead of a cross."
Judge Harry Pregerson noted that the cross depicted on the 1957 county seal above the Hollywood Bowl is actually a depiction of a cross on private property on a hill above the Cahuenga Pass.
David Hernandez, chairman of the Committee to Support the Los Angeles County Seal, said the cross was erected on the hill to acknowledge the contributions religion played in the founding of the county and to help people find the Pilgrimage Theater, now the John Anson Ford Theater.
"That's why all those particular things are in one quadrant - the Hollywood Bowl, the Pilgrimage Theater cross and the two stars representing Hollywood," Hernandez said.
troy.anderson@dailynews.com
(213) 974-8985
P.S.
Results of LA Daily News Poll:
90% did not believe seal was unconstitutional. I guess someone other than David cares.
Back in court tomorrow with the American Legion. Oh by the way, the American Legion at a National Level has endorsed David's efforts.
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