A federal judge in Pennsylvania has reluctantly ruled that a county in the Commonwealth can’t include a Christian cross in its official seal. U.S. District Judge Edward Smith, nominated to the bench by then-President Barack Obama, wrote in his ruling that he doesn’t believe that Lehigh County’s inclusion of a cross in its 73-year-old seal violates the Establishment Clause in the way that the Founding Fathers
intended when they wrote the U.S. Constitution. “Lehigh County’s seal is a passive symbol that does not coerce any citizen to practice or adhere to Christianity, and does not establish a county religion. Thus, the seal does not violate the plain text of the Establishment Clause. Nor does it establish religion in the way the drafters of the First Amendment imagined,” he stated. However, Smith said that he felt he had to adhere to the standards of higher courts that have concluded otherwise. READ MORE
