Christian symbol judged ‘plainly constitutional’
A federal appeals court has ruled in favor of a county seal that contains a cross, citing a recent Supreme Court decision as the governing precedent.
The unanimous ruling by the Third US Circuit Court of Appeals, issued August 8, overturned a lower court decision that found the seal for Lehigh County in Pennsylvania violated the establishment clause of the Constitution’s First Amendment.
The nation’s highest court ruled in June that the Peace Cross in Bladensburg, Maryland, which was dedicated by the American Legion in 1925 and stands in a traffic circle, is constitutional. The appeals court described its decision as consistent with that ruling.
