WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) - Boca Raton can tear down crosses, stars of David and other monuments on grave sites in the city's municipal cemetery because the decorations are not essential for religious practice, a federal judge ruled Wednesday.
The ruling was believed to be the first of its kind in the nation, and the first under Florida's Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1998, which says governments cannot impose a ''substantial burden'' on people's freedom of religious expression.
Judge Kenneth Ryskamp said that families who decorated the final resting places of their loved ones with religious symbols, plants, stones and other items will not have their religious rights trampled if they cannot keep the decorations.
The Boca Raton cemetery permits only a horizontal plaque at the foot of each grave. The city claimed the religious monuments were an obstacle for maintenance workers and violated long-standing but seldom-enforced rules against vertical decorations.
About 400 families sued the city to stop the removal of the items.
''We clearly are going to appeal,'' said Howard Simon, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida, which had filed the class-action lawsuit.
The judge offered several reasons why he ruled against the families, who claimed they were never given a copy of the cemetery's regulations.
First, he said, there are Catholic and Jewish cemeteries with similar regulations prohibiting large or vertical grave coverings or statues, and those cemeteries haven't been found to impede religious expression.
The judge also said the families do not own the cemetery plots; rather, they own the rights to burial in that public land.
The city is free to remove the items, but probably will hold off until the appeals are exhausted, said Beverly Pohl, an attorney for the city.

© AP  1999