Lehigh Valley County, which is about 40 miles north of Philadelphia, will have to redesign its seal after U.S. District Judge Edward Smith ruled in favor of the plaintiffs, the Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF), an organization that promotes separation of church and state and which filed the lawsuit against the county, according to The Morning Call.
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http://www.foxnews.com/us/2017/09/29/federal-judge-tells-pennsylvania-county-to-drop-christian-cross-from-its-seal.html
13 comments:
Fed has no business doing this. The states make their own laws, the u.s. accepts the state as a member of the Union as is. "Congress shall make no law" establishing a religion or lack thereof.
@1PM
By putting the Christian Cross in the seal, the state is establishing it's state religion as Christian, and the Federal Court correctly ruled on it as a violation of the establishment clause.
What's next, you'll be arguing that the right to bear arms only holds up if the gun owner is in a militia. You clearly don't understand law, or the Constitution, or why and for what purpose the establishment clause was written for in the first place.
@1:13, the Congress did not put that cross there and cannot take it down. That's what the U.S. Constitution says in the First Amendment. You are confusingly thinking the Federal Government is somehow able to rule over the States.
You are wrong.
1:00
Tell the judge to go to his safe room and stay out of the state business
1:13 shhh. They spent a lot of time memorizing only the parts of the Constitution that make it sound like they have a clue.
Rebuke, Recall, Get Rid of Judge NOW...Ignore the Ignorant...all part of our 'founding and foundation'.
judge needs to be told what he can go & do to himself. who does he think he is?
@1PM / 2:58PM
Well, the Supreme Court disagrees with you... you know, the folks that rule on the law and the Constitution?... who also happen to be almost exclusively Christian...
I think I'll put my money on the experts who are the best in their field.... and not someone who wants to play with words to make things fit their illusion of the world.
The county should appeal. Without doing any research, it's likely the seal was adopted quite some time back.
A cross may have a religious connotation to some but it doesn't make anyone viewing the seal convert to any religion at all. In like fashion some seals may have a plow or a coat of arms on them; they don't force anyone to become a farmer or buy a suit of armor.
The Constitution forbids establishment of a state religion because it was common at the time, and in times before, for the monarch or emperor or chieftain to dictate that all their subjects or citizens worship and believe as they did.
Our Framers were familiar with this history and since under England some of our our States (colonies) had established religions and others did not the decision was made that individuals could follow their beliefs but that the States and newborn USA would not be permitted to dictate a state religion.
Symbols on a seal or letterhead or flag are innocuous. Too bad the Court in this case neglected to use common sense. If it is appealed my non-lawyer opinion is they stand a reasonable chance of reversing this foolish opinion. The plaintiffs are just professional busy bodies; their actual religion is trying to jam their views on cities, counties and states distant from their residence. Waste of time and resources.
@8:47
Very good points.. though, I would like to know, for what purpose and why was the cross added to the emblem. For that matter, why would any religious iconography be added to any government building or logo? For what purpose does it serve?
To imply it has no religious significance is to say that the symbol seems dishonest. Why use the symbol if there is no religious significance? For what purpose is it used if not for a religious one?
Could the cross have been put there to acknowledge the fact that the county was founded under Christian principles, by a population of about 99.9% Christian heritage?
@11:13
I reject your claim that the nation was founded on Christian principles. I will be happy to change that rejection as soon as someone can present these specific principles, and show how they are inherently Christian.
The country was also founded with religious freedom and liberty in mind... but we don't argue that all religious symbols should be included. It was also founded by taking land by force.. or we include images of slaughtered Native Americans do we? I find your majority population argument as not a good enough argument. The country is founded on religious freedom, it seems to be the antithesis of that to display only one religious iconography.
And again, for what purpose is the symbol used? Why does it have to be a Christian symbol when in fact our country is not a theocracy, and in fact protects all religion (or lack thereof)
We want freedom from the FFRF. Works both ways, fools.
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