C
charlie,nj
Guest
(this happened in Jersey City, N.J. a few years ago).
ACLU v. (Mayor)Schundler, 1999
In 1999, Alito was part of a majority ruling of the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court that freed Jersey City, N.J., from an earlier court ruling that had blocked the city from erecting a holiday display at City Hall. The court held that the display did not violate the establishment clause of the First Amendment -- the clause interpreted as a call for the separation of church and state -- because the city had modified its original display of a creche and a menorah to include a Frosty the Snowman, Santa Claus, red sleigh and a banner hailing the importance of diversity.
Much of the argument in this case came down to the relative prominence of the secular symbols in the display as compared to the religious symbols.
Opinion Excerpt: "With the possible exception of this factor, however, we see no reasonable basis for distinguishing the modified Jersey City display from the display upheld in Lynch. The plaintiffs and our dissenting colleague suggest that the cases can be distinguished on the ground that in the modified Jersey City display 'Santa Claus and Frosty the Snowman clearly do not constitute separate focal points or centers of attention coequal with the Menorah and the Nativity Scene,' Appellees' Br. at 14, but we see no basis for this distinction. Appendices A and B to this opinion, which depict the modified displays on both sides of City Hall in Jersey City, speak for themselves. In the modified display on the right, the sleigh is just as much a focal point as the figures in the nativity scene. And in the modified display on the left, the tree is just as much a focal point as the menorah."
Read the 'ACLU v. Schundler Ruling'
.
ACLU v. (Mayor)Schundler, 1999
In 1999, Alito was part of a majority ruling of the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court that freed Jersey City, N.J., from an earlier court ruling that had blocked the city from erecting a holiday display at City Hall. The court held that the display did not violate the establishment clause of the First Amendment -- the clause interpreted as a call for the separation of church and state -- because the city had modified its original display of a creche and a menorah to include a Frosty the Snowman, Santa Claus, red sleigh and a banner hailing the importance of diversity.
Much of the argument in this case came down to the relative prominence of the secular symbols in the display as compared to the religious symbols.
Opinion Excerpt: "With the possible exception of this factor, however, we see no reasonable basis for distinguishing the modified Jersey City display from the display upheld in Lynch. The plaintiffs and our dissenting colleague suggest that the cases can be distinguished on the ground that in the modified Jersey City display 'Santa Claus and Frosty the Snowman clearly do not constitute separate focal points or centers of attention coequal with the Menorah and the Nativity Scene,' Appellees' Br. at 14, but we see no basis for this distinction. Appendices A and B to this opinion, which depict the modified displays on both sides of City Hall in Jersey City, speak for themselves. In the modified display on the right, the sleigh is just as much a focal point as the figures in the nativity scene. And in the modified display on the left, the tree is just as much a focal point as the menorah."
Read the 'ACLU v. Schundler Ruling'
.
