Florida Towns Face Lawsuit After Banning Nativity Scene
by Allie Martin
December 8, 2005
(AgapePress) - - Two Florida cities are being sued after both banned a private display of a Nativity scene on public property. The lawsuit was filed on behalf of Ken Koening against Neptune Beach and Atlantic Beach near Jacksonville. Neptune Beach and Atlantic Beach share joint control over a town center park that has a forum containing a 25-foot-tall Christmas tree. Also, both towns have approved an application by a private group to erect a large Menorah in the Park. However, when Koening wanted to display a Nativity scene in the same forum, both towns denied his request.
Mat Staver | |
Mathew Staver is president of Liberty Counsel, the pro-family legal organization that filed the lawsuit against the two Florida towns. He says their denial of Koening's request to erect a Nativity scene is "absolutely ridiculous" and constitutes unlawful discrimination against the Christian display.
"These cities have taken the position that the Christmas tree is okay, that the Menorah is fine, but the Nativity scene -- since it's religious in their view -- is unconstitutional," Staver says. "The problem is that the Jewish Menorah is indeed religious."
The Liberty Counsel spokesman feels the Florida city officials are engaging in the worst sort of constitutional violation. "What these cities have done," he asserts, "is they have violated the clear commands of the First Amendment. They say that the Christmas tree is secular. They erroneously say that the Menorah is secular -- it's not; it's religious."
But then, Staver points out, the officials go on to say that the Nativity scene, being religious, is not permitted in the park. "They've allowed the discussion of the holidays to occur in this public, open forum," he explains, "but they have absolutely censored a particular religious, or Christian, viewpoint."
The attorney notes that, while the towns have justified their discrimination by claiming that the Jewish Menorah is secular, "the Supreme Court has recognized the Menorah as a religious symbol." And, he emphasizes, the high court has also ruled that even government-sponsored displays of a Nativity scene alongside a Christmas tree or a Menorah alongside a Christmas tree are constitutional, and the constitutional right to display privately sponsored religious Christmas displays in an open forum is even clearer.
Liberty Counsel's lawsuit argues that the exclusion of the privately sponsored Nativity scene from an open forum constitutes viewpoint discrimination in violation of the Constitution. The suit asks the court to enter a temporary restraining order requiring the towns to permit Koening's Christmas crèche to be included among the other holiday displays in the park.
Allie Martin, a regular contributor to AgapePress, is a reporter for American Family Radio News, which can be heard online.
