Attorney Says City Discriminates Against Christians While Endorsing Other Faiths

by Allie Martin
November 13, 2003

Like This Page? Tweet

(AgapePress) - A federal judge hears oral arguments today on a motion to temporarily restrain New York City from enforcing a ban on nativity scenes in its public schools.

In 2001 and again last year, officials with the Catholic League attempted to convince New York City public school officials to allow Nativity scenes as part of Christmas displays. Under current policy, city officials only allow Christmas trees and similar non-religious symbols in displays commemorating the Christian celebration, while they encourage display of the Jewish menorah and the Islamic star and crescent during their respective holidays.

Robert Muise is an attorney with the Thomas More Law Center, which is suing the City of New York. The attorney contends that the city's ban on nativity scenes is both discriminatory and unconstitutional. "This policy, both on its face and as applied, promotes and endorses Judaism and Islam, and shows disfavor or hostility to Christianity -- and the Constitution forbids that," he says.

Muise is representing a mother and her two children, both of whom are elementary school students in the New York City public school system. He says his legal group's view is that even a policy that excluded all mention of religion from the public schools would be intolerant, since religion is "part of our culture, part of our heritage.

The attorney points out that the U.S. Constitution does not require schools to have an intolerant policy towards religion, and moreover, he says, "the Constitution forbids a school from enacting a policy that discriminates against a particular religion. In this case, the policy discriminates against Christians, so it's on that basis that we're challenging it."

According to Muise, it is possible that the judge could issue a ruling from the bench immediately after the conclusion of oral arguments on Thursday. He hopes the federal court will grant at least a temporary injunction on the ban by Thanksgiving so Nativity scenes can be displayed this Christmas season.