Posted on 02/04/2021 6:04:44 PM PST by marshmallow
Washington D.C., Feb 3, 2021 / 01:00 pm MT (CNA).- A federal appeals court on Tuesday allowed an Indiana county to display a nativity scene at its courthouse.
A three-judge panel of the Seventh U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals found that a nativity display in front of the Jackson County courthouse is constitutional.
The ACLU of Indiana had sued the county in 2018 over the display, on behalf of county resident Rebecca Woodring. She said the display “conveys the county’s endorsement of a religious message.”
In their majority opinion on Tuesday, Judges Diane Wood and Amy St. Eve said that the display “fits within a long national tradition of using the nativity scene in broader holiday displays to celebrate the origins of Christmas—a public holiday.”
Mat Staver, founder and chairman of Liberty Counsel, the firm representing Jackson County, called the ruling “a great victory” that confirms the display “does not violate the First Amendment.”
“The Supreme Court and many federal courts have ruled such displays are constitutional, especially when the display includes other secular symbols of the holiday, and this display in Jackson County is no exception,” Staver said.
The Brownstown Area Ministerial Association, a local coalition of Christian ministers, owns the nativity display and purchased it in 2003; it has been featured since then in the town’s “Hometown Christmas celebration.”
The Indianapolis Star reported that the Christmas scene in front of the government building in Brownstown, in Jackson County, also includes secular imagery of Santa Claus and candy canes.
After Woodring sued in a lower court, the court initially ruled in her favor. The county then appealed the decision. The Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in favor of the county on Tuesday.
(Excerpt) Read more at catholicnewsagency.com ...
This is probably a phyrric victory; Rebecca Woodring has had her unjust hearing and needs to move on but she won’t.
If O’hare had gotten the treatment she deserved we’d be a lot better off today. Instead we allowed one malcontent woman to turn our beliefs upside down and then slink off into oblivion and die.
Conservatives just want to be left alone and leave others alone; liberals want to force their warped sense of values on us.
Big deal. We’ve been reduced to this as a “victory”?
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