Justices OK Some Yuletide Religious Displays : 5-4 Ruling Says Varied Symbols Must Reflect Nation’s Pluralist Tradition

The Supreme Court ruled today that some government-sponsored religious displays are permissible as long as they do not have “the effect of promoting or endorsing religious beliefs.”

By a 5-4 vote, the court said displaying a Christmas Nativity scene inside the Allegheny County Courthouse in Pittsburgh violates constitutionally required separation of church and state because it appears to endorse Christian principles.

But the court by a 6-3 vote nanimously permitted a Hanukkah menorah on the front steps of the City-County Building in Pittsburgh because that display also included a Christmas tree and a sign saluting liberty, which the court said produced an overall secular purpose.

While the justices were split sharply in declaring the Nativity scene unconstitutional, the court substantially upheld its long-used test for determining when the wall between church and state is breached.

Justice Harry A. Blackmun wrote for the court and was joined in striking down the Nativity scene by Justices William J. Brennan, Thurgood Marshall, John Paul Stevens and Sandra Day O’Connor.

Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, participating in his first church-state case since joining the court in 1988, dissented in voting to permit the Nativity scene.

The other dissenters were Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist and Justices Byron R. White and Antonin Scalia.

Blackmun said the Nativity scene, or creche, violated the Constitution because “nothing in the context of the display detracts from the creche’s religious message.”

By contrast, he said the display containing the menorah includes symbols that support the nation’s pluralist tradition.

“The city’s overall display must be understood as conveying the city’s secular recognition of different traditions for celebrating the winter holiday season,” he said.

Kennedy said the court, in barring government sponsorship of the creche, showed “an unjustified hostility toward religion, a hostility inconsistent with our history and our precedents.”

Today’s ruling relied heavily on a 1984 decision in which the court upheld the constitutionality of a creche in Pawtucket, R.I. The creche at issue there was surrounded by secular symbols such as Santa Claus, reindeer and snowmen. The Pittsburgh creche was displayed by itself.