Court of Appeals Upholds Nativity Scene and Menorah at City Hall in New JerseyFeb 18, 1999 The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit has upheld a municipal holiday display in front of Jersey City, New Jersey's City Hall. In a ruling filed Tuesday and released on Wednesday, a divided panel of the Court reversed a lower court and held that a display that includes, along with a creche and menorah, a santa and sleigh, various Kwanza symbols, and a Frosty the Snowman does not violate the separation of church and state. The display also included a sign calling attention to various other municipal cultural activities throughout the year that celebrate Jersey City's diversity. Under Mayor Bret Schundler, Jersey City has sponsored a variety of cultural offerings including a Hindu Festival of Lights parade, Ramadan events, and various other parades, exhibits, and ethnic celebrations. At the same time, the court declined to reopen an earlier decision in the case by a different three-judge panel that struck down a display of the menorah, creche and sign, but that lacked Frosty and the other secular items. Nevertheless, the Court went out of its way to cast doubt on the prior opinion. The lawsuit was filed by the ACLU in 1994.
Becket Fund President and General Counsel Kevin J. Hasson, who argued the case for Jersey City, applauded the decision. "The court's opinion goes a long way toward restoring common sense to the law of religious liberty," he said. "You can't weed religion out of the culture without uprooting the whole culture in the process," he added. Acknowledging that "it's a shame that these cases have to come down to Frosty the Snowman," Hasson said The Becket Fund would continue to press for further changes in the law.
The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty is a bipartisan and ecumenical public interest law firm that protects the free expression of all religious traditions. Relevant Cases
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