L.A. County faces suit over adding religious cross to seal - latimes.com

They know it is going to be challenged, cost the taxpayer's money, but yet they proceed as if they are in the right. I don't get it,,,

"What a waste of County resources. The supervisors MUST have known they'd face a law suit if they took this action. But they did it anyway, over a completely unimportant issue."

"Sure, the cross on top of the Mission is historically accurate and part of LA's history. But there are a hundred other symbols also relevant to LAs history that are not on that seal. So why add the cross?

"What's the point? This strikes me as very poor governance. There are much more important issues to be focusing on and much better uses for the County budge than paying for legal battles over this.

The county initially adopted a seal in 1957 that portrayed a cross floating over the Hollywood Bowl. In 2004, a divided Board of Supervisors voted to remove the cross rather than fight a threatened lawsuit by the ACLU. A county employee sued to have the cross restored, sparking a multiyear court battle that ended in 2007 when the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear a challenge to the county's decision.

When the seal was redesigned in 2004, it included a depiction of the San Gabriel Mission to reflect the role of Catholic missions in the county's history, but there was no cross on top. At the time, there was no cross on the physical mission, either, as it had been taken down during earthquake retrofitting and was later stolen. The cross was eventually recovered and replaced atop the mission.

Supervisors Zev Yaroslavsky and Gloria Molina voted against adding the cross, citing concerns about likely litigation. Molina declined to comment on the ACLU lawsuit.

Yaroslavsky said in an interview, "This is not a surprise. We were warned by our own attorneys that we would likely face a challenge … and now we'll have the privilege of spending money to defend a decision that didn't need to be made."

Antonovich spokesman Tony Bell blamed the ACLU for wasting county resources: "We believe it's a frivolous lawsuit that should be fought vigorously like any frivolous lawsuit," he said.

L.A. County faces suit over adding religious cross to seal - latimes.com