It may only be July, but a Christmas controversy is already brewing in Connecticut, and the Freedom From Religion Foundation is urging state officials to avoid turning the State Capitol into another holiday battleground.
After First Liberty Institute threatened Connecticut with litigation over a proposed Nativity display inside the state Capitol, the Freedom From Religion Foundation has stepped up to urge state officials to adopt a simple, content-neutral policy prohibiting all unattended private displays inside the Capitol. This would ensure that government buildings remain focused on serving the public rather than becoming annual battlegrounds over religion.
First Liberty Institute and the law firm Jones Day recently demanded that Connecticut allow the Family Institute of Connecticut to place a privately sponsored Nativity scene inside the Capitol. Rather than allowing advocacy groups to turn the Capitol into a forum for competing religious and ideological displays, FFRF recommends that the state adopt a straightforward rule barring all unattended private displays, regardless of viewpoint.
“The end of the year should be a time for celebration, not annual fights over whose religious display belongs inside the state Capitol,” says FFRF Co-President Dan Barker. “People of every faith and of no faith should be able to visit their Capitol feeling welcome, knowing it’s devoted to the people’s business, not to promoting or hosting private religious displays.”
Christians have churches, homes and countless private venues in which to celebrate the religious aspects of Christmas. Government buildings need not become another venue for privately sponsored religious displays.
In a letter to Connecticut’s Joint Committee on Legislative Management, FFRF noted that prohibiting all unattended private displays inside the Capitol would eliminate recurring disputes over which groups receive access to government property.
Writes FFRF Legal Counsel Chris Line: “Such a policy would better serve the Capitol’s governmental purposes, avoid unnecessary constitutional litigation and protect the committee from precisely the type of lawsuit First Liberty appears eager to bring.”
FFRF has consistently opposed government-sponsored religious displays. At the same time, when governments choose to create genuine public forums for private holiday displays, FFRF works to ensure those forums are open to everyone, not just Christians. The organization has placed Winter Solstice displays, its “Bill of Rights Nativity” display and other secular exhibits in capitols and public spaces across the country to remind governments that if they open the door to private religious expression, they must also welcome nonreligious viewpoints. FFRF’s preferred solution, however, is a neutral policy that avoids turning government property into an annual contest over competing religious and ideological displays.
Courts have repeatedly recognized that governments may impose reasonable, viewpoint-neutral restrictions on unattended displays on public property. The U.S. Supreme Court has specifically observed that “a ban on all unattended displays” would be a permissible time, place and manner restriction.
FFRF urged the committee to temporarily pause approval of any new unattended private displays while it reviews and revises its policy. The organization noted that its legal department has extensive experience with First Amendment litigation and state/church issues, and offered to consult with the committee or its counsel in developing a constitutionally sound, viewpoint-neutral display policy.
The Freedom From Religion Foundation is a national nonprofit organization with about 41,000 members nationwide, including more than 400 members in Connecticut. FFRF’s purposes are to defend the constitutional principle of separation between church and state, and to educate the public on matters relating to nontheism.
