El Pueblo<\/a>, the historic heart of Los Angeles, according to court papers obtained Tuesday.<\/p>\nIn Gerritsen v. City of Los Angeles, a local resident sued to remove the cross and stop the city from putting up the nativity scene because he said he was offended by the religious nature of the display.<\/p>\n
In May, a federal judge in downtown Los Angeles rejected the request to scrub the seasonal display, and plaintiff Jack Gerritsen appealed. On Monday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit affirmed the judge\u2019s decision, meaning the cross and nativity can stay up while the courts move toward a final ruling in the case.<\/p>\n
The Olvera Street Merchants Association, a group of merchants whose families have been a part of the El Pueblo community for generations, have \u201ca significant and legally protected interest in preserving the historic and cultural heritage of El Pueblo,\u201d a court filing said.<\/p>\n
Gerritsen claimed the displays on public land at El Pueblo \u2014 a hand-carved wooden cross erected in 1929 and the nativity traditionally displayed in the Old Plaza every Christmas season \u2014 violate the First Amendment\u2019s establishment clause, which, among other things, bars the government from favoring one religion over others.<\/p>\n
Gerritsen says the cross and nativity scene offend him and make him feel excluded as an atheist.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis ruling is common sense: Of course the City of Angels has room for religious symbolism,\u201d Andrea Butler, lead attorney for the merchants, said in a statement. \u201cLos Angeles belongs to people of every faith and none, and its public square naturally bears the marks of that diversity.\u201d<\/p>\n
The cross and display have long been part of El Pueblo\u2019s history and traditions. The 10-foot wooden cross was erected at the head of Olvera Street in 1929 to commemorate Los Angeles\u2019 148th birthday, while the nativity is displayed each December alongside the community\u2019s traditional Las Posadas celebration.<\/p>\n
Gerritsen could not immediately be reached for comment.<\/p>\n
\u201cReligious imagery is a natural part of our nation\u2019s history and culture \u2014 it shouldn\u2019t be pulled down just because one passerby dislikes it,\u201d Butler said. \u201cThe Constitution doesn\u2019t require Los Angeles to erase historical landmarks just because they reference religion. We\u2019re glad the court agreed.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By FRED SHUSTER | City News Service A federal appeals court has handed a win to a group…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":479948,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[7,8,1312,1647,48,52,51,1846,47,137,50,49,100,6163],"class_list":["post-479947","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-california","tag-california-news","tag-courts","tag-downtown-los-angeles","tag-la","tag-la-headlines","tag-la-news","tag-lawsuit","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-county","tag-los-angeles-headlines","tag-los-angeles-news","tag-news","tag-religion"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/479947","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=479947"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/479947\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/479948"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=479947"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=479947"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=479947"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}