Posted on 12/20/2006 4:54:27 PM PST by Coleus
BRIARCLIFF MANOR, N.Y., December 20, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Village of Briarcliff Manor officials have decided to remove their entire holiday display, including a 9-foot-tall menorah, from a public park rather than allow a resident to add a crèche after Alliance Defense Fund attorneys and allied attorneys won a temporary restraining order Friday from a federal judge. The lawsuit and TRO motion were filed Dec. 11 after the Briarcliff Manor Village's Board of Trustees refused to permit the display.
"The village's constitutional violations regarding religious expression in public make them look like the grinches who stole Christmas and Chanukah from the citizens of Briarcliff Manor," said ADF-allied attorney John Stepanovich. "It is truly sad that officials have chosen not only to thumb their noses at religion but at the justice system as well, since our client's request of equal access for a privately-funded crèche in addition to the menorah was entirely constitutional."
In place of where the holiday display once stood, village officials displayed a sign criticizing U.S. District Judge William C. Conner's decision to grant the temporary restraining order. The federal court judge's decision forced officials to either remove the menorah or grant resident Henry Ritell's request to display a nativity scene alongside it.
The sign read, "The Village erected a menorah and Christmas tree display in a spirit of inclusion. In response to a federal court order the entire display has been removed. We disagree with the court." Following outcry from the public, village officials removed the sign.
The thread is not about pine trees.
Get's you in the paper too.
And it gets the public to discuss the issue.
And it got a Court somewhere to admit that the Free Exercise Clause of the Constitution means that religious symbols ARE allowed in the public square as long as no religion is discriminated against.
Up until now, we have had Courts establishing secularism as the official state religion and arbitrarily deciding that Menorahs are secular symbols (wink, wink) and allowable but crosses and creches are religious symbols and prohibited. The arbitrary unfairness of such rulings only serves to stir up resentments and fights every December.
Past dumb legal precedent is not engraved in stone. New legal decisions can change it but only if the issue is addressed in Court.
Roman Legionnaires removing a secular symbol from the Second Temple
The United States was never intended to be a secular republic, but a secular government led by religious people whose various faiths might be expressed freely in the public sphere as long as our elected government did not act to favor one faith over another. The perversion of this ideal has led to the rise of a tyranny of perpetually aggrieved minorities who have used the naked power of government to relegate all religious expressions (except for Islam, it seems) to the small corners of life.
That's true, but this is such old stuff, decades old.
If you put up a Menorah, you better put up a Creche if requested. Nothing new about that, the courts have dealt with it, which is why in each of these instances the "authorities" remove a display, their only option to prohibiting one. That Menorahs are primarily secular symbols, imo indefensible, is disproved by the actions of the autorities involved.
But that's where Hugh Victor Thompson III resided. He was supposed to address the Rotary Club of Larchmont, but was delayed while trapped in a Queens elevator with one Archie Bunker and other diverse characters.
One of the very best "All In The Family" episodes ever.
Played by the great Roscoe Lee Brown. The Puerto Rican couple trapped in the elevator with them included another great character actor, Hector Elizondo.
I knew you didn't have an answer... please, stop making a fool of yourself.
nice try...
now try again.
Stupid is indeed stupid.
One at least: Mrs. Vincent Astor lives there. At least I think she does--is she still alive? Maybe you're right, she's dead, and there really aren't any gentiles in Briarcliff.
I thought everybody knew that a "creche" is the sound a menorah makes when it falls off the table . . .
Thank you, Dov
And Happy Hanukkah!!
I couldn't give a flip if it was a nativity scene dropped in a barrel of urine. It's still a stupid thing to get into a lawsuit over.
According to the Supreme Court, a menorah is not a religious symbol.
Nine judges so ruled.
Now we know the true derivation of the word "assiNINE".
PS There is a valid question of whether a menorah which is not candle, gas, oil, or some other falme operated is a religious symbol. The Orthodox hold it isn't. The Assi-nine may have bassed their decision on some derivation of thsi. Who knows? Who cares?
1. Why not have both? The Founders intended more religion, not less.
2. No Federal judge has any jurisdiction over a State or local matter involving religion. The 1st Amendment gives the Federal courts jurisdiction only over acts of Congress regarding religion. The 10th Amendment forbids Federal involvement in State or local concerns outside of that Congressional context.
2. We actually have zoning laws to keep the trash out.
3. It works for us.
4. Say what you want about the names of the towns up here, but it beats living in Intercourse, Blue Ball, Boogerville, or even Newport News.
--- Clemenza, Hamlet of Lawrenceville (Formerly Maidenhead), Township of Lawrence, founded 1697. ;-)
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