Los Angeles changes city emblem to avert lawsuit

0 Comments | AFP, September, 2004

LOS ANGELES (AFP) — The county of Los Angeles has changed its 47-year-old official emblem to ward off a lawsuit by civil rights advocates who claimed the current seal unfairly favours the Christian religion.

The county's board of supervisors voted 3-2 late Tuesday to adopt a new city seal to replace a 1957 emblem that features a small cross above Los Angeles famed Hollywood Bowl concert venue.

Faced with the threat of a lawsuit from the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) if it failed to remove the offending symbol, the county reluctantly dropped the cross and adopted a new seal.

The ACLU argued that the cross violated the US Constitution's guarantee of a separation between church and state.

While two of the county's five supervisors wanted to keep...