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Page Number: 72.0

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AMERICAN LEGION  v. AMERICAN HUMANIST ASSN. 

GINSBURG,  J., dissenting 

State’s choice to display the cross on public buildings or 
spaces conveys a message of exclusion: It tells them they 
“are outsiders, not full members of the political commu- 
nity,” County of Allegheny, 492 U. S., at 625 (O’Connor, J., 
concurring in part and concurring in judgment) (internal 
quotation  marks  omitted).    Cf.  Van  Orden,  545 U. S., at 
708 (Stevens, J., dissenting) (“The adornment of our public 
spaces  with  displays  of  religious  symbols”  risks  “ ‘of-
fend[ing] nonmembers of the faith being advertised as well 
as adherents who consider the particular advertisement 
disrespectful.’ ” (quoting County of Allegheny, 492 U. S., at 
651  (Stevens,  J.,  concurring  in  part  and  dissenting  in 
part))).5 
  A presumption of endorsement, of course, may be over-
come.    See  Buono,  559  U. S.,  at  718  (plurality  opinion) 
(“The goal of avoiding governmental endorsement does not 
require eradication of all religious symbols in the public 
realm.”).    A  display  does  not run afoul of the neutrality 
principle  if  its  “setting  . . .  plausibly  indicates” that the 
government has not sought “either to adopt [a] religious 
message or to urge its acceptance by others.”  Van Orden, 
545  U. S.,  at  737  (Souter,  J.,  dissenting).    The  “typical 
museum  setting,”  for  example,  “though not neutralizing 
the religious content of a religious painting, negates any 
message of endorsement of that content.”  Lynch v. Don-
nelly, 465 U. S. 668, 692 (1984) (O’Connor, J., concurring).  
Similarly, when a public school history teacher discusses 
the Protestant Reformation, the setting makes clear that 

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5 See  also  Jews  and  Christians  Discussion  Group  in  the  Central 
Committee of German Catholics, A Convent and Cross in Auschwitz, in 
The  Continuing  Agony:  From the Carmelite Convent to the Crosses at 
Auschwitz 231–232 (A. Berger, H. Cargas, & S. Nowak eds. 2004) (“We 
Christians  must  appreciate  [that]  [t]hroughout  history  many  non-
Christians, especially Jews, have experienced the Cross as a symbol of 
persecution,  through  the Crusades, the Inquisition and the compulsory 
baptisms.”).