Law Center sues California court after proposed removal of Christian quote

Sep 30, 2004 / 22:00 pm

The Pro-Family Law Center filed a lawsuit against the operators of the Riverside County Historic Courthouse after the operators acquiesced to the threat of litigation by the liberal Anti-Defamation League (ADL).

Earlier this week, the ADL threatened the Riverside County Superior Court with legal action if it did not remove a quote by President Theodore Roosevelt that states: "The true Christian is the true citizen."

The quote, which has been there since 1930, is one of many quotes from other presidents, including Abraham Lincoln and Thomas Jefferson.

But the ADL claims that the Roosevelt quote “marginalizes” non-Christians.

Since the quote is engraved in gold on a wall in the courthouse, courthouse personnel have proposed that the quote be covered up with a loose piece of wood.

But the Pro-Family Law Center says historical preservation laws make it a crime to alter the courthouse – a designated historical site – in any way, including the addition of a loose piece of wood.

The Pro-Family Law Center points out that the ADL has not challenged photographic images of Jews and other religious references placed in other courthouse buildings in the same district. The law center alleges that the ADL is acting to censor and single out Christians.

“The quotes from the various presidents represent a diversity of cultural and historic views,” said Richard D. Ackerman, the lead attorney and plaintiff in the action. “Removal of any one of the quotes would take away from the cultural diversity that is represented throughout the Riverside judicial system by historical engravings, photographic images of practicing Jewish people on display, and through the very cornerstone of the courthouse, which was placed there by a Masonic Lodge in 1903."

The Pro-Family Law Center views this case as one designed to protect all Christians in the United States and the contributions of people of all faiths since the nation’s founding.