Religious Sign In Police Cruiser Raises Church-State Questions

Today's Greensboro (NC) News-Record reports that a sign posted in a police cruiser has raised a new church-state issue. Driver M. Reza Salami (a professor at North Carolina A&T) was stopped by police at a checkpoint last week and was told to sit in the back seat of a Guilford County Sheriff's cruiser by Sheriff's Deputy M. Osborne. In the cruiser, between the front and back seats, was posted a sign reading "Jesus is your savior". The deputy's supervisor argues that the sign was permissible because it was an expression of the deputy's beliefs, and Sheriff B.J. Barnes favors deputies being able to display anything that gives them comfort during their dangerous 12-hour shifts. Constitutional law expert Erwin Chemerinsky said that it is impermissible to promote religion in this way in a police car used for official county business.