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Mayor Bret Schundler Wins Lawsuit Against ACLU
Jersey City
Yesterday, Mayor Bret Schundler, with legal help from the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, claimed victory in a five-year-old court struggle with the ACLU. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit upheld the City's right to have a holiday display in front of City Hall. In a ruling released yesterday, a three-judge panel reversed a lower court and held that a display that includes a creche, menorah, a santa and sleigh, various Kwanza symbols, and a Frosty the Snowman does not violate the separation of church and state.
"We believe that a city should be allowed to recognize the richly diverse cultures and arts of its people. By suing Jersey City to prevent us from displaying the holiday symbols of our Christian and Jewish residents, the ACLU suggested that Jersey City could only honor its diverse cultures if it censored out religious symbols connected with those two particular groups. The court agreed with us, plain and simple. Now we can look forward to next year's holiday season when we can once again celebrate and display our religious symbols on the front lawn of City Hall," Mayor Schundler said.
United States District Judge Dickinson Debevoise of the Federal District Court had upheld the City's holiday display in December, 1995 against a challenge brought by the American Civil Liberties Union and the Rutgers Constitutional Law Center, an entity which is partially funded with state tax dollars. However, the Third Circuit Court of Appeals overturned that original decision in December, 1997. The City appealed and the Third Circuit heard oral arguments for ACLU v. Schundler last August and ruled in favor of Schundler. If there is an appeal by the ACLU to this latest decision, the Mayor plans to take it to the U.S. Supreme Court.
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Hudson County, New Jersey is a place of many firsts - including genocide and slavery.
Political corruption is a tradition here.
First in a series by Anthony Olszewski – Click HERE to find out more.
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