Appeals court defends Los Angeles religious heritage, culture against First Amendment claims 

A historic cross and annual nativity display will continue to commemorate the Mexican American heritage of Los Angeles after a federal appeals court rejected claims that these landmarks violate First Amendment freedoms.

“Religious imagery is a natural part of our nation’s history and culture – it shouldn’t be pulled down just because one passerby dislikes it,” counsel at The Becket Fund Andrea Butler said in a statement Monday. “The Constitution doesn’t require Los Angeles to erase historical landmarks just because they reference religion. We’re glad the court agreed.”

The history of El Pueblo

El Pueblo de Los Angeles, the “birthplace” and “historic heart” of the City of Los Angeles, sits near the original settlement that the first 48 emigrants from the Sonora and Sinaloa regions of New Spain (Mexico) established in 1781, according to a legal motion. The area was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1972.

“The El Pueblo Historical Monument preserves the City’s important historical and cultural heritage by protecting landmarks and celebrating the contributions of many of the City’s diverse cultural groups, most prominently Mexican-Americans,” the motion states. “The Olvera Street market and cultural celebrations throughout the year connect millions of visitors each year to El Pueblo’s historic past and vibrant ongoing traditions.”

Olvera Street includes numerous shops, restaurants, merchants and historical monuments. In the 1920s, the town revitalized it into a thriving merchant market and began organizing traditional cultural celebrations, including Las Posadas, a nine-night festival featuring a “reenactment” of Mary and Joseph’s journey to Bethlehem. During the Christmas season, the street also displays a traditional nativity scene.

A 10-foot hand-carved wooden cross has marked the head of Olvera Street since 1929, when it was first erected to celebrate Los Angeles’ 148th birthday. The cross is part of the El Pueblo Historical Monument’s protected heritage under the National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA), passed in 1966, according to the motion.

California resident objects to religious displays

But in 2025, Jack Gerritsen, a local resident, sued the city of Los Angeles and the general manager of El Pueblo Monument for $5 million, claiming the cross violates the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment “as a Christian endorsement on public land,” according to the motion. He also claimed that the town’s annual nativity “offends” him as “a non-believer.”

Gerritsen requested the cross’ immediate removal while awaiting legal proceedings, but the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the district court’s denial of this request Monday.

“So, the bottom line is the Supreme Court has said governments are not required to erase these kind of religious aspects of history and culture just because certain people find them objectionable because they’re religious,” Butler told Heartlander News, adding that to do so would be “hostile to religion in a way that’s unconstitutional,” in a summary of the court’s ruling.

Generational merchants request to join the suit

The Becket Fund represents the Olvera Street Merchants Association Foundation, a group of merchants with generational ties to the El Pueblo community who are requesting to join the case to protect Los Angeles’ cultural heritage, Butler explained.

“Their families have been participating in the culture there and the traditions there for generations,” Butler said. “So, we are asking the district court to let the merchants intervene in the case because they have an important interest in preserving El Pueblo’s historic nature and heritage.”

The foundation formed in 2005 to “preserve and promote” the cultural heritage and celebrations of Olvera Street, which has hosted numerous festivals for nearly 100 years, according to the motion.

“All of the events incorporate cultural and educational elements, including traditional Aztec and Folklórico dancers, artisans, Mexican food, and pastries and chamurrado (Mexican hot chocolate),” said Valerie Hanley, an Olvera Street merchant whose parents founded the organization she now runs. “These events hold deep cultural significance for the Foundation and its members and are a primary method for the Olvera Street community to celebrate and preserve its shared culture and heritage, going back to the City of Los Angeles’s founding.”

The merchants have an interest in the case both for their commitment to cultural preservation and for economic reasons, due to the tourism Olvera Street draws, the motion argues. Many members of the association and other El Pueblo merchants say they value their cultural heritage despite their own religious differences.

“Though many of the events have their roots in Catholic traditions, I believe they now serve primarily a historic and cultural role rather than a religious one,” another merchant, Sylvia Gribbell, said in the motion. “Even though I am religiously agnostic, I find these celebrations of our shared culture and heritage personally meaningful.”

Legal proceedings

While the case must still proceed again before the district court, the ruling against the preliminary request to remove the monuments is “a very strong sign” that both the district and appeals courts will say, “these displays are constitutional,” Butler said.

“El Pueblo embodies this historical Mexican American culture, and it’s important for the Olvera Street Merchants Association and really all of Los Angeles to honor that history as an important part of their history, and that includes kind of the religious nature of it as well,” she said. “You can’t just take out the religious parts of history because some people are offended by them.”

(Image credit: Ken Lund, Olvera St. Cross, CC BY-SA 2.0, Flickr, https://www.flickr.com/photos/kenlund/14338430197)