SAN FRANCISCO — It was the week before Christmas when Irv Sutley, a former warehouse worker, first saw the offending ornament in a government building in Sonoma County, just north of here. “I was turning around in the lobby, and I noticed the tree,” Mr. Sutley said. “And then, I noticed the angel.” Mr. Sutley, an atheist, said he then went to the office of the county Board of Supervisors. “And there was a star,” he said. Technically, neither stars nor angels belong to any particular religion. But to the mind of Mr. Sutley, 65, a veteran who has fought...