Lehigh County can continue to observe its culture and heritage with its 70-year-old seal, which includes a Latin cross, a three-judge federal appeals court ruled today (Thursday) in Philadelphia.

The 3-0 ruling overturned a lower court decision that had upheld a challenge in 2016 from a Wisconsin-based atheist group, Freedom from Religion Foundation that brought suit on behalf of four Lehigh County residents who insisted that the cross violated the U.S. Constitution’s Establishment Clause in the First Amendment.

The appeals court had put off the decision until the U.S. Supreme Court had acted on the Bladensburg Cross case in Maryland, which it did in June. The high court ruled that the 40-foot-high Maryland cross on a busy state highway was part of a World War I memorial, not a religious statement.

Lehigh County’s seal, which has been used for seven decades without complaints, features the cross representing early German settlers who fled persecution in their homeland seeking religious freedom in the Lehigh Valley and surrounding areas of Pennsylvania.

The seal also contains more than a dozen other images, including the Liberty Bell, a red heart, grain silos and textiles, all symbolic of the county’s history.

``It is common sense that religion played a role in the lives of our nation’s early settlers. Recognizing that is just as constitutional as honoring symbols like the Liberty Bell,” said Diana Verm, senior counsel at Becket Law, a Washington, D.C., firm which represented the county. ``It is only right that Lehigh County can continue honoring its history and culture,’’ she added.