County supervisors sued over cross issue

LOS ANGELES, Sept. 30 (UPI) -- A church and nine individuals are jointly suing three Los Angeles County supervisors who voted to remove a cross from the county seal.

The lawsuit, joined by nine others including radical-turned-conservative David Horowitz, was filed by The Claremont Institute Center for Constitutional Jurisprudence and the Individual Rights Foundation, the Los Angeles Daily News reported Thursday.

It alleges the decision to replace the seal with a cross-less version before the results of an initiative process were known was an illegal waste of taxpayer funds.

The lawsuit also alleges the supervisors' decision was made under threat of litigation by the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California.

"I am very worried that this intimidation by the ACLU of the Board of Supervisors will start a chain reaction around the country of removing the Christian vestiges and the basis of our society, and I say this as a practicing Jew," said nationally syndicated radio talk-show host Dennis Prager.

Prager is promoting the drive to gather 341,000 signatures by March 1 to force the supervisors to call for a special election on whether to keep the original 1957 seal.