Nation IN BRIEF : MICHIGAN : Religious Portrait Settlement Rejected

Federal District Judge Benjamin Gibson, who said he received death threats for ordering a picture of Jesus Christ removed from a Grand Rapids, Mich., high school hallway, rejected a settlement that would have added portraits of historical figures to the display. He said the settlement reached by lawyers “still violates the Constitution and promotes a particular religion excessively by a public body.” The lawsuit to get rid of the picture was filed 13 months ago by Eric Pensinger, then a senior at the school. Lawyers agreed the picture could stay if portraits of Abraham Lincoln and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. were hung nearby.