Source: https://openjurist.org/168/f3d/92/american-civil-liberties-union-of-new-jersey-lander-v-schundler
Timestamp: 2019-04-21 14:45:53+00:00

Document:
Jersey City, New Jersey, Appellants.
Kevin J. Hasson (Argued), Eric W. Treene, The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, Washington, D.C., for appellants.
Nathan Lewin, Richard W. Garnett (Argued), Miller, Cassidy, Larroca & Lewin, Washington, D.C., for Chabad of Pittsburgh as Amicus Curiae in Support of defendants-appellants.
Ronald K. Chen (Argued), Rutgers Constitutional Litigation Clinic, Rutgers Law School, Newark, NJ, for appellee.
Before: NYGAARD, ALITO, and RENDELL, Circuit Judges.
This appeal concerns the constitutionality of two Jersey City "holiday" displays. The first, which featured a menorah and a Christmas tree, was annually placed in front of City Hall for several decades. In 1995, the District Court permanently enjoined the City from continuing the practice of erecting this or any substantially similar display, see ACLU of N.J. v. Schundler, 931 F.Supp. 1180 (D.N.J.1995), and a prior panel of our court affirmed that decision. ACLU of N.J. v. Schundler, 104 F.3d 1435, 1444-50 (1997). Jersey City subsequently moved for relief from that order under Rule 60(b)(5) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, contending that the Supreme Court's intervening decision in Agostini v. Felton, 521 U.S. 203, 117 S.Ct. 1997, 138 L.Ed.2d 391 (1997), had undermined the panel's reasoning. The District Court denied this motion, and we now affirm that decision.
Jersey City also challenges the District Court's most recent decision regarding a modified holiday display that the City put up after the original display was enjoined. The modified display contained not only a creche, a menorah, and Christmas tree, but also large plastic figures of Santa Claus and Frosty the Snowman, a red sled, and Kwanzaa symbols on the tree. In addition, the display contained two signs stating that the display was one of a series of displays put up by the City throughout the year to celebrate its residents' cultural and ethnic diversity. We find this modified display to be indistinguishable in any constitutionally significant respect from the displays upheld by the Supreme Court in Lynch v. Donnelly, 465 U.S. 668, 104 S.Ct. 1355, 79 L.Ed.2d 604 (1984), and County of Allegheny v. ACLU, Greater Pittsburgh Chapter, 492 U.S. 573, 109 S.Ct. 3086, 106 L.Ed.2d 472 (1989) (hereinafter "Allegheny County "), and we therefore hold that Jersey City's modified display is likewise constitutional.
On December 21, 1994, the ACLU and other plaintiffs filed a complaint in state court against the City, the mayor, and the city council (hereinafter collectively "the City"), challenging the City's display under the federal and state constitutions.3 In January 1995, the City removed the action to the District Court, and on November 28, 1995, the District Court granted the plaintiffs' motion for summary judgment and held that the City's display violated the Establishment Clause of the federal Constitution, as well as a parallel state constitutional provision. The District Court permanently enjoined the City from erecting its traditional display or any substantially similar scene or display at the front entrance of City Hall or on other property that the City owned, maintained, or controlled.
On appeal, a panel of our court affirmed the District Court's decision regarding the original display. 104 F.3d at 1444-50. The panel noted the religious significance of the creche and the menorah, as well as the City's annual expenditure of some public funds to erect and maintain the display. Id. at 1445. The panel concluded that "the [original] display cannot be viewed as anything but a constitutionally impermissible dual endorsement of Christianity and Judaism." 104 F.3d at 1446.
Turning to the modified display, the panel held that the District Court's analysis was incorrect. 104 F.3d at 1450-52. The panel found no basis in Supreme Court cases for what it termed the District Court's " 'demystification' approach," and the panel noted that the parties agreed that this approach was "flawed." Id. at 1450-51 & nn. 17-18. The panel "conclude[d] that the district court erred in determining that the constitutionality of the modified display depended on whether the presence of Frosty and Santa 'demystified' the creche and the menorah." Id. at 1451 (footnote omitted). The panel therefore remanded the case for the District Court to analyze the modified display pursuant to the proper standards. Id. at 1452. But while remanding the question of the constitutionality of the modified display for reconsideration by the District Court, the panel also spent several paragraphs expressing in dicta a skeptical view about the constitutionality of the modified display. Id. at 1451-52.
On remand, the plaintiffs moved for summary judgment and a permanent injunction barring the modified display. The defendants cross-moved for summary judgment and also filed a motion under Fed.R .Civ.P. 60(b)(5) for relief from the District Court's earlier injunction on the ground that the Supreme Court's decision in Agostini, which overruled Aguilar, had undermined the panel's reasoning. Specifically, the defendants pointed to the panel's reliance on the concept of "entanglement" and the Supreme Court's decision in Agostini that entanglement should no longer to be considered an independent test but should be viewed along with other factors as "an aspect of the inquiry into ... effect." 521 U.S. at 233, 117 S.Ct. at 2015.
In Agostini, the Supreme Court modified the Establishment Clause test articulated in Lemon v. Kurtzman, 403 U.S. 602, 612-13, 91 S.Ct. 2105, 29 L.Ed.2d 745 (1971), which asked (1) whether a challenged government practice had a secular purpose, (2) whether its principal or primary effect advanced or inhibited religion, and (3) whether it created an excessive entanglement of the government with religion. See ACLU of N.J. v. Black Horse Pike Regional Bd. of Educ., 84 F.3d 1471, 1483 (3d Cir.1996). The Agostini Court stated that Lemon's entanglement prong is best understood and treated "as an aspect of the inquiry into a statute's effect." Agostini, at 233, 117 S.Ct. at 2015. While this statement merges the entanglement prong with the effect prong, it does not mean that considerations of excessive entanglement have been entirely deleted from Establishment Clause analysis; in Agostini, the Court analyzed the factors regarding entanglement at length. See id. at 232-36, 117 S.Ct. at 2015-16. Rather, the statement appears to mean that entanglement, standing alone, will not render an action unconstitutional if the action does not have the overall effect of advancing, endorsing, or disapproving of religion. See id.
Since entanglement analysis is still part of the Establishment Clause inquiry, the mere fact that the prongs have been merged is insufficient to undermine the prior panel's decision regarding the original Jersey City display. The City and amicus curiae Chabad of Pittsburgh point out, however, that the prior panel's entanglement analysis relied on two rationales that the Supreme Court rejected in Agostini. First, the prior panel stated that the City's display policy would foster excessive interactions between municipal officials and local religious leaders in implementing the policy.4 104 F.3d at 1449-50. Second, the prior panel reasoned that the City's displays would "produce political divisiveness." Id. at 1450. The Agostini Court addressed these same two factors in considering the constitutionality of New York City's "Title I" program,5 under which public school teachers are sent into parochial schools to provide remedial education to disadvantaged children, and the Court held that these two factors "are insufficient by themselves to create an 'excessive' entanglement" under its "current understanding of the Establishment Clause." 521 U.S. at 233, 117 S.Ct. at 2015.
While we are inclined to agree with the City and amicus curiae Chabad of Pittsburgh that the prior panel's entanglement analysis is no longer valid in the wake of Agostini, it does not follow that Rule 60(b)(5) relief was required. Before discussing entanglement at all, the prior panel concluded that Jersey City's original display violated the Establishment Clause because it "communicate[d][an] endorsement of Christianity and Judaism...." 104 F.3d at 1446. If this conclusion is accepted, the original display is unconstitutional irrespective of the presence or absence of excessive entanglement. Accordingly, we agree with the District Court that Rule 60(b)(5) relief was not required.
A. In Lynch v. Donnelly, 465 U.S. 668, 104 S.Ct. 1355, 79 L.Ed.2d 604 (1984), the Court upheld the constitutionality of a holiday display erected by the City of Pawtucket, Rhode Island. "[S]ituated in a park owned by a nonprofit organization and located in the heart of the shopping district," the display was characterized by the Court as "essentially like those to be found in hundreds of towns or cities across the Nation--often on public grounds--during the Christmas season." Id. at 671, 104 S.Ct. 1355. The display consisted of "many of the figures and decorations traditionally associated with Christmas, including, among other things, a Santa Claus house, reindeer pulling Santa's sleigh, candy-striped poles, a Christmas tree, carolers, cutout figures representing such characters as a clown, an elephant, and a teddy bear, hundreds of colored lights, a large banner that reads 'SEASONS GREETINGS,' and [a] creche." Id. All components of the display were owned by the City. Id. The City had purchased the creche some years earlier for $1365, and the City incurred a small annual expense in erecting, lighting, and dismantling the creche. Id.
The city ... has principally taken note of a significant historical religious event long celebrated in the Western World. The creche in the display depicts the historical origins of the traditional event long recognized as a National Holiday.... The display is sponsored by the City to celebrate the Holiday and to depict the origins of that Holiday. These are legitimate secular purposes.
The Court likewise held that the inclusion of the creche did not have the principal or primary effect of advancing religion. 465 U.S. at 681-83, 104 S.Ct. 1355. Noting that prior Establishment Clause cases had upheld various forms of aid to students attending church-related schools and colleges, tax exemptions for church property, Sunday Closing laws, "release time" programs, and legislative prayers, the Court was "unable to discern a greater aid to religion deriving from inclusion of the creche than from these benefits and endorsements previously held not violative of the Establishment Clause." Id. at 682, 104 S.Ct. 1355. The Court concluded that if the inclusion of the creche provided some "benefit to one faith or religion or to all religions," the effect was "indirect, remote and incidental." Id. at 683, 104 S.Ct. 1355.
The evident purpose of including the creche in the larger display was not promotion of the religious content of the creche but celebration of the public holiday through its traditional symbols. Celebration of public holidays, which have cultural significance even if they also have religious aspects, is a legitimate secular purpose.
Although the religious and indeed sectarian significance of the creche ... is not neutralized by the setting, the overall holiday setting changes what viewers may fairly understand to be the purpose of the display--as a typical museum setting, though not neutralizing the religious content of a religious painting, negates any message of endorsement of that content. The display celebrates a public holiday, and no one contends that declaration of that holiday is understood to be an endorsement of religion. The holiday itself has very strong secular components and traditions. Government celebration of the holiday, which is extremely common, generally is not understood to endorse the religious content of the holiday, just as government celebration of Thanksgiving is not so understood. The creche is a traditional symbol of the holiday that is very commonly displayed along with purely secular symbols, as it was in Pawtucket.
Four Justices--Justices Brennan, Marshall, Blackmun, and Stevens--dissented, concluding that the Pawtucket display did not have a secular purpose, 465 U.S. at 698-701, 104 S.Ct. 1355 (Brennan, J., dissenting), had the primary effect of placing "the government's imprimatur of approval on the particular religious beliefs exemplified by the creche," id. at 701, 104 S.Ct. 1355, and "pose[d] a significant threat of fostering 'excessive entanglement.' " Id. at 702, 104 S.Ct. 1355.
In sum, Lynch teaches that government may celebrate Christmas in some manner and form, but not in a way that endorses Christian doctrine. Here, Allegheny County has transgressed this line. It has chosen to celebrate Christmas in a way that has the effect of endorsing a patently Christian message: Glory to God for the birth of Jesus Christ. Under Lynch, and the rest of our cases, nothing more is required to demonstrate a violation of the Establishment Clause. The display of the creche in this context, therefore, must be permanently enjoined.
In a separate concurrence, Justice O'Connor similarly distinguished Lynch, stating that "[i]n contrast to the creche in Lynch, which was displayed in a private park in the city's commercial district as part of a broader display of traditional secular symbols of the holiday season, this creche st[ood] alone in the county courthouse" and had the "unconstitutional effect of conveying a government endorsement of Christianity." 492 U.S. at 627, 109 S.Ct. 3086 (O'Connor, J., concurring). Three of the Lynch dissenters--Brennan, Marshall and Stevens--were of the view that the display of religious symbols on government property necessarily sends a message favoring religion. 492 U.S. at 637-46, 109 S.Ct. 3086 (Brennan, J., concurring in part and dissenting in part); id. at 646-55, 109 S.Ct. 3086 (Stevens, J., concurring in part and dissenting in part). In an opinion by Justice Kennedy, four Justices dissented and would have upheld the courthouse display. 492 U.S. at 655-79, 109 S.Ct. 3086.
Second, Justice Blackmun addressed the City-County Building display in Part VI of his opinion, which was not endorsed by any other member of the Court. 492 U.S. at 613-21, 109 S.Ct. 3086 (opinion of Blackmun, J.). Justice Blackmun concluded that this display represented a celebration by the city of "both Christmas and Chanukah as secular holidays." Id. at 615, 109 S.Ct. 3086. He interpreted the display to mean that "both Christmas and Chanukah are part of the same winter-holiday season, which has attained a secular status in our society." Id. at 616, 109 S.Ct. 3086. He noted that the tallest object in the display, the tree, is a secular symbol, and while he recognized that the menorah is a religious symbol, he suggested that it did not in context convey a religious message because of the proximity of the larger tree and the fact that, in his view, there was no comparable secular symbol of Chanukah that the City could have used. Id. at 616-18, 109 S.Ct. 3086. He was fortified in this view by the mayor's sign, which saluted liberty and drew "upon the theme of light ... common to both Chanukah and Christmas as winter festivals...." Id. at 619, 109 S.Ct. 3086.
The display that the Supreme Court sustained in Lynch resembles the modified Jersey City display in several important respects. Both included one or more religious symbols owned by the city (in Lynch, a creche; in Jersey City, a creche and a menorah), as well as a variety of secular ones. Both included one or more secular signs or banners (in Lynch, a banner proclaiming "SEASONS GREETINGS"; in Jersey City, two signs that read: "Through this display and others throughout the year, the City of Jersey City is pleased to celebrate the diverse cultural and ethnic heritages of its peoples."). Accordingly, Lynch appears to support the constitutionality of the modified Jersey City display unless some constitutionally significant distinction can be shown.
We now consider how the modified Jersey City display fares under the holding of the Supreme Court in Allegheny County. The Court's decision striking down the display of the creche on the Grand Staircase of the Allegheny County Courthouse does not cast doubt on the constitutionality of the modified Jersey City display. As noted earlier, the display on the Grand Staircase consisted of a creche with a religious proclamation ("Gloria in Excelsis Deo") surrounded by a floral decoration that "serve[d] only to draw one's attention" to the creche. 492 U.S. at 598-99, 109 S.Ct. 3086. The display contained no secular symbols, and the display did not communicate to a reasonable observer the sort of secular message that is needed to pass Establishment Clause scrutiny, e.g., acknowledgment of "the cultural diversity of our country" and support for "tolerance of different choices in matters of religious belief or nonbelief by recognizing that the winter holiday season is celebrated in diverse ways by our citizens." Allegheny County, 492 U.S. at 636, 109 S.Ct. 3086 (O'Connor, J., concurring) . The modified Jersey City display expressly conveyed this very message by means of its sign and implicitly conveyed the same message through its diverse nonverbal elements. Thus, the unconstitutional display on the Grand Staircase of the Allegheny County Courthouse is readily distinguishable from the modified Jersey City display.
On the other hand, there are instructive parallels between the constitutionally permissible display in front of the City-County Building and the modified Jersey City display. (Indeed, the photograph of the City-County Building display, see 492 U.S. at 622, 109 S.Ct. 3086, and the display on the left-side of Jersey City's City Hall (see Appendix A of this opinion) are virtually identical except for the presence of Santa in the latter display). First, both displays contained both secular and religious symbolism. It is true that the City-County Building display included fewer religious symbols (a menorah only) than the modified Jersey City display (both a menorah on the left side of City Hall and a creche on the right), but the City-County Building display also included fewer secular symbols, and in both cases the balance seems to have been roughly the same. Moreover, Justice O'Connor's opinion in Allegheny County refutes any suggestion that the display of a menorah is inherently less likely to create Establishment Clause problems than is the display of a creche. Eschewing the suggestion that Chanukah is "a 'secular' holiday" or that "the menorah has a 'secular dimension,' " she pointedly wrote that "the menorah is the central religious symbol and ritual object of [a] religious holiday." 492 U.S. at 633-34, 109 S.Ct. 3086. She similarly rejected the idea that, because "it would be implausible for the city to endorse a faith adhered to by a minority of the citizenry," inclusion of a menorah in a holiday display is less likely than a Christian religious symbol to convey a message of government endorsement of religion. Id. at 634, 109 S.Ct. 3086. She wrote that "[a] menorah standing alone at city hall may well send such a message to nonadherents, just as in this case the creche standing alone at the Allegheny County Courthouse sends a message of governmental endorsement of Christianity...." Id.
Second, the strong similarity between the location of the City-County Building display (on public land in front of what is in essence Pittsburgh's City Hall) and the location of the Jersey City display (on public land in front of City Hall) is particularly important in light of our earlier conclusion that the only basis on which the Pawtucket display upheld in Lynch might potentially be distinguished from the modified Jersey City display was that the former display was located on private land in the city's business district. The portion of Justice O'Connor's separate opinion in Allegheny County relating to the display on the Grand Staircase suggested that this distinction had some significance.13 But when Justice O'Connor turned to the display in front of the City-County Building--a location indistinguishable for present purposes from the site of the Jersey City display--she held that the display was constitutional. (The other factors that Justice O'Connor stressed in this portion of her Allegheny County opinion--the tree and the sign--also have close parallels here). This persuades us that the location of the Jersey City display on public property in front of City Hall does not in itself provide a valid basis for holding the display to be unconstitutional.
Moreover, although this factor is not necessary to our decision, we are convinced that, in evaluating the message conveyed by the modified Jersey City display to a reasonable observer, the general scope of Jersey City's practice regarding diverse cultural displays and celebrations should be considered. In our en banc decision in ACLU of N.J. v. Black Horse Pike Regional Bd. of Ed., 84 F.3d 1471 (3d Cir.1996), we held that, in determining whether a government practice endorses religion, " 'the "history and ubiquity" of a practice is relevant because it provides part of the context in which a reasonable observer evaluates whether a challenged governmental practice conveys a message of endorsement of religion.' " Id. at 1486 (quoting Allegheny County, 492 U.S. at 630, 109 S.Ct. 3086 (O'Connor, J., concurring)); see also Capitol Square Review and Advisory Bd. v. Pinette, 515 U.S. 753, 779, 115 S.Ct. 2440, 2455, 132 L.Ed.2d 650 (1995) (O'Connor, J., concurring) ("the reasonable observer in the endorsement inquiry must be deemed aware of the history and context of the community and forum in which the religious display appears"; "the knowledge attributed to the reasonable observer [cannot] be limited to the information gleaned simply from viewing the challenged display"). To the extent that the prior panel opinion, see 104 F.3d at 1448-49, conflicted with our prior en banc decision in Black Horse Pike, the prior en banc decision must of course take precedence.
The dissent notes that "Jersey City used public funds to own, erect, and maintain the creche and the menorah." Dissent at 111. But in Allegheny County, the menorah was also "stored, erected, and removed each year by the city." 492 U.S. at 587, 109 S.Ct. 3086 (opinion of Blackmun, J.). And in Lynch, the city owned, erected, and dismantled the creche. 468 U.S. at 671, 104 S.Ct. 3262.
Finally, the dissent argues that, whereas "a display containing only a menorah and a Christmas tree" may be constitutional, "when a creche and a menorah are displayed together, 'the menorah's religious significance is emphasized.' " Dissent at 111-12 (quoting Schundler I, 104 F.3d at 1446). This statement overlooks the fact that the creche and menorah were displayed on opposite sides of the City Hall Plaza Park. See Appendix C. More important, since Lynch teaches that display of a creche is not per se unconstitutional, and Allegheny County teaches that the same is true of a menorah, it is hard to accept the proposition that the Establishment Clause is violated when these two symbols are displayed together as part of a holiday display that includes secular symbols and is dedicated to the celebration of a municipality's cultural diversity.
Government display of a creche [unlike a menorah] cannot convey a meaning separate from the very act it is meant to portray. A creche depicts the Birth of Christ, the event that lies at the foundation of Christianity. In Allegheny County, the Court determined that displays containing a creche as a primary focal point, which are situated at the seat of government, are constitutionally impermissible as they convey a message of government endorsement. This is consistent with Lynch, in which the Court permitted a creche that was part of a display in a private park depicting a "winter wonderland" scene because, in context, there were no external indicia of government endorsement.
We respectfully submit, in part for reasons that we have already discussed, that this dicta misinterprets both Lynch and Allegheny County. First, the distinction that is drawn between a creche and a menorah necessarily rests on the mistaken view that these two symbols differ critically with respect to the nature or degree of the religious message that they convey. As we have explained, however, Justice O'Connor flatly rejected this suggestion in her pivotal Allegheny County opinion. See 492 U.S. at 633-34, 109 S.Ct. 3086 (opinion of O'Connor, J.). Once it is recognized that a creche and a menorah should be regarded as equivalent religious symbols for the purpose of analyzing holiday displays, the similarity between the constitutionally permissible display in front of the City-County Building in Pittsburgh and the modified display in front of Jersey City's City Hall becomes apparent.
[I]t is difficult to suggest that anyone could have failed to receive a message of government sponsorship after observing Santa Claus ride the city fire engine to the park to join with the mayor of Pawtucket in inaugurating the holiday season by turning on the lights of the city-owned display. See Donnelly v. Lynch, 525 F.Supp. 1150, 1156 (D.R.I.1981). Indeed, the District Court in Lynch found that 'people might reasonably mistake the Park for public property,' and rejected as 'frivolous' the suggestion that the display was not directly associated with the city. Id., at 1176, and n. 35.
Allegheny County, 492 U.S. at 666-67, 109 S.Ct. 3086 (opinion of Kennedy, J.). Once these two points are recognized--that the menorah and the creche must be viewed for present purposes as equivalent religious symbols and that the display in Lynch indisputably involved the conveyance of a government message--the foundation of the prior panel's dicta is undermined.
I have two reasons for dissenting. First, I dissent because I believe that the argument urged upon us by appellant undermines our earlier decision in this case. Following Schundler I, addressing the original display, I still conclude that the addition of a few small token secular objects is not enough to constitutionally legitimate the modified display. Although appellant strives mightily to explain what we did not hold in Schundler I, I believe it more important to determine what we did hold. We explicitly held that the display at issue here, minus Frosty, Santa, the sleigh, and the Kwanzaa symbols, was unconstitutional because it had the effect of communicating an endorsement of particular religions. So, I submit that the real question now is whether simply adding Kwanzaa symbols to the tree and placing Frosty (a secular symbol of Christmas), Santa (a once-religious symbol--St. Nicholas--now quite secularized), and a sleigh in the display sufficiently changed the display's context so as to negate the message that was conveyed by the original display, which we held unconstitutional.
The second, albeit weaker, reason why I dissent is that although the majority cites the applicable Supreme Court case law to reach its conclusion that this display is constitutional, parsing the same law and applying it to these facts leads me to the opposite conclusion. There is, I readily acknowledge, much confusion and plenty of room for jurisprudential disagreement in this area. No bright lines of demarcation have been drawn between religious "establishment" and simple display, and perhaps none of us is capable of accurately drawing such a line given the state of the case-law. I am afraid that the shifting majorities and fact-specific opinions of the Supreme Court in Lynch and Allegheny County provide only a precarious analytical framework for both the public and we inferior federal courts to apply in determining the exact location of the line of demarcation.
The Supreme Court's two major recent excursions into this area have resulted in fractured majorities and no clear statement of the law. Nonetheless, it seems to me that the Court has directed us to evaluate religious symbols in the context of the entire display. As we noted in Schundler I, "the Supreme Court, in its myriad of approaches in the display cases, has repeatedly emphasized the importance of examining the context of the display at issue to determine whether it has the effect of endorsing religion." Schundler I, 104 F.3d at 1451. We reaffirmed the significance of context when we examined Allegheny County and Lynch "to illustrate 'the importance of the context of a challenged practice' in conducting an Establishment Clause analysis." Id. (quoting ACLU v. Black Horse Pike Regional Bd. of Educ., 84 F.3d 1471, 1484 (3d Cir.1996) (en banc)). Following the Supreme Court's decisions in Lynch and Allegheny County, I conclude that Jersey City's modified display resulted in an unconstitutional establishment of religion.
a Santa Claus house with a live Santa distributing candy; reindeer pulling Santa's sleigh; a live 40-foot Christmas tree strung with lights; statues of carolers in old-fashioned dress; candy-striped poles; a "talking" wishing well; a large banner proclaiming "SEASONS GREETINGS"; a miniature "village" with several houses and a church; and various "cut-out" figures, including those of a clown, a dancing elephant, a robot, and a teddy bear.
Allegheny County, 492 U.S. at 596, 109 S.Ct. at 3102 (opinion of Blackmun, J.). The Court in Allegheny County noted that the Lynch display was composed of a series of figures and objects, each group of which had its own focal point. See id. at 598, 109 S.Ct. at 3104 (opinion of the Court). The various objects each had a separate "visual story to tell." Id. at 598, 109 S.Ct. at 3104.
After Allegheny and Lynch, therefore, not every city-owned-and/or-displayed creche violates the Establishment Clause. Lynch squarely upheld a city's erection of a creche that it owned as part of its Christmas display in a park owned by a nonprofit organization. A key factor leading to that conclusion, especially in light of the later Allegheny decision, was that the creche was only a small part of an otherwise secular display.
Elewski v. City of Syracuse, 123 F.3d 51, 54 (2d Cir.1997) (upholding a holiday display of a creche in light of the context) (emphasis added) (citations omitted), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 118 S.Ct. 1186, 140 L.Ed.2d 317 (1998). Although I disagree with the Elewski opinion in light of Lynch, nonetheless even if we apply its reasoning to the Jersey City display, the creche and menorah were certainly not "small parts" of an otherwise secular display. The only reasonable interpretation, as we noted in Schundler I, is that Frosty and Santa composed a small secular part of an otherwise sectarian display, not the other way around.
Rather than the seasonal, "winter wonderland" scene in Lynch, Jersey City erected a display that a reasonable observer would interpret as having three symbolic focal points: the creche, the menorah, and the Christmas tree.1 The same three focal points that were found to result in an unconstitutional endorsement of religion by this Court in Schundler I.2 Indeed, the modified display perhaps provides a more substantial example of endorsement than the original display because the characters of the creche were removed from their isolated, sheltered position in the manger to a more prominent position beside it. See Schundler I, 104 F.3d at 1439. Compared to the display in Lynch, the Jersey City display had more and larger sectarian symbols combined with fewer secular symbols. This created a different context and resulted in a different message, one of government endorsement of religion.
Nor do I think that Allegheny County supports the conclusion that the Jersey City display was constitutional. It can be argued that, when looking at the secular and sectarian elements, the balance seems to have been "roughly" the same in the Jersey City display and the Allegheny County display located on the front steps of the City-County Building. I think that statement underestimates the importance of the context of the display by eliding the difference in the size and location of the various elements. In Allegheny County, the 45' tall Christmas tree was "clearly the predominant element in the city's display" on the steps of the City-County Building. Allegheny County, 492 U.S. at 617, 109 S.Ct. at 3113 (opinion of Blackmun, J.). The tree dwarfed the 18' tall menorah, which was placed to the side of the tree's central position beneath the middle archway in front of the building. See id. This clearly contrasts the Allegheny County display with the Jersey City display in which, on both sides of the display, the "predominant" element was sectarian.
When a government chooses to speak by erecting a creche on government property, the principles at the core of the Establishment Clause are clearly implicated. By erecting the creche itself, on city property, a city sends a stronger message of endorsement of religion than when it merely provides a forum for private religious speech. In the former context, the government is effectively conveying the message that "we celebrate the holiday season by recognizing the birth of Christ."
We must not overlook an important basis of our decision in Schundler I: In finding the display unconstitutional, we relied on the fact that Jersey City used public funds to own, erect, and maintain the creche and the menorah. Although not a deciding factor, we noted that "by using taxpayer dollars to fund a display containing religious symbols, Jersey City has increased the risk that the display's religious message will be attributed to the city and its taxpayers." Id. at 1445-46; see also Elewski, 123 F.3d at 57 (Cabranes, J., dissenting) (noting that government sponsorship is "a relevant and important factor"). The modified display here is subject to the same infirmity.
In Allegheny County, the Court allowed a display containing only a menorah and a Christmas tree. We, however, have found that when a creche and a menorah are displayed together, "the menorah's religious significance is emphasized." Schundler I, 104 F.3d at 1446. In Allegheny County, Justice O'Connor found that, even though the religious message of the menorah was not entirely neutralized, any message of government endorsement was negated by the presence of the much larger Christmas tree. See Allegheny County, 492 U.S. at 635, 109 S.Ct. at 3123 (O'Connor, J, concurring). In Jersey City, however, the religious aspect of the menorah was underscored by the rest of the display.4 In this case, the menorah is more reasonably viewed in light of the presence of the creche, not the tree. In Allegheny County, the menorah outside the City-County Building was privately owned and its religious message was not accentuated by the additional presence of a creche representing the stable wherein Jesus was born. These facts distinguish the Allegheny County display from this one.
After thirty years of religious promotion by Jersey City in front of City Hall, the reasonable observer would likely see the addition of the secular figures, which "lacked the physical sturdiness and careful positioning of the religious symbols," Dist.Ct. at 10, as we saw them in our previous opinion--"token additions" which do little to "secularize" the "conveyed ... message of government endorsement of religion." Schundler I, 104 F.3d at 1452 & n. 19 (noting the "artful[ ]" argument of the ACLU that the reasonable observer would no doubt characterize the additional figures as "attempts at evasion of constitutional prohibitions through superficial secular tokenism"); see also Dist.Ct. at 10 (finding that the addition of the secular symbols was "a ploy designed to permit continued display of the religious symbols"); ACLU v. City of Florissant, 17 F.Supp.2d 1068, 1075-76 (E.D.Mo.1998) (finding, on similar facts, that adding secular figures to a previously sectarian display did not "negate or muffle the earlier message of endorsement"). I am aware of no Supreme Court holding that allows the government to make a religious pronouncement at Christmas and Hanukkah as long as it has made a sufficient number of secular pronouncements at other times of the year. Although Jersey City certainly has separate ethnic and cultural celebrations, this does not obscure the fact that for several weeks of every year, the city government erected a display that communicated a religious message. The Supreme Court's interpretation of the First Amendment simply does not allow the government to do that.
The inconsistent results in this Court can be directly attributed to the insufficient and inconsistent guidance given to the inferior federal courts--or, perhaps as I earlier mused, the behavior at issue here is incapable of being guided. In both Lynch and Allegheny County, the Supreme Court could not agree on the correct analysis, much less the correct application of a standard to the facts. After Capitol Square Review & Advisory Board v. Pinette, 515 U.S. 753, 115 S.Ct. 2440, 132 L.Ed.2d 650 (1995), it now appears that a majority of the Supreme Court has at least accepted that government-sponsored religious speech should be evaluated under the endorsement test. Until the Supreme Court decides a case in which a majority opinion of the Court utilizes a clear test to analyze a religious display, we are left with fact-specific inquiries that focus on the size, shape, and inferential message delivered by displays with religious elements, leaving almost any display that has a religious symbol in it open to challenge and any such display that has secular elements, no matter how trivial, open to judicial approval.
Unfortunately, Justice Kennedy's prediction in Allegheny County has come true. "[A] jurisprudence of minutiae" relying on "little more than intuition and a tape measure" has resulted from the unclear analyses contained in the various opinions of the Supreme Court. Allegheny County, 492 U.S. at 674-76, 109 S.Ct. 3086 (Kennedy, J., concurring in the judgment in part and dissenting in part).
Were the foregoing the only reason for my disagreement, I may not have written a dissent; or if so, it would may well have suffered the same end as most others I write. However, there is another aspect of this case--the fact that we have already addressed the display at issue here, and that, in my opinion, the majority's opinion slices our earlier holding too thinly. As I noted earlier, in light of the holding in Schundler I, the only question for us today is whether the additions of Santa, Frosty, a sleigh, and some Kwanzaa ribbons rehabilitate a display that we held to be an unconstitutional endorsement of religion. The majority, however, goes beyond this issue to question the central holding and reasoning underlying an earlier opinion of this Court--a close reading of the majority's holding reveals that the decision does not only rely on the presence of the figures or the Kwanzaa ribbons. Therefore, the majority would effectively overrule one of our own opinions: a task reserved for the en banc Court. Although this event would be cause for alarm in any case, my dismay is heightened here where the second opinion emanates from the exact litigation as the first. In this instance, the concern for the consistency of the law and the legitimacy our jurisprudence is intensified. Of course the law of religious displays is characterized by intensive fact analysis and questionable line drawing, and it is possible to disagree with our prior holding and analysis; however, to protect the integrity of our jurisprudence, I cannot condone the appearance of one panel overruling another.
[t]he token additions of the secular symbols do little to alter the "context" or the focal points of the City's display. We reiterate that Jersey City's display of the creche at the seat of City government power impermissibly conveyed a message of government endorsement of religion. And, in our view, the City's addition of Santa, Frosty, and a red sled did little to secularize that message.
If reaching the erroneous conclusion that a particular display is constitutional is regarded as proof of an intent to flout the Establishment Clause, are Allegheny County dissenters implicated by virtue of their views?
In addition, applying a sort of Blackmun yardstick test, appellant appears to argue that the 4' tall Santa and the 3' 10" tall Frosty created separate focal points that operated to neutralize the sectarian message conveyed by the 14' tall menorah and the over 45' square, 7' tall manger with a separate nativity scene. The snowman was located to the back left of the manger, approximately 35 feet away from the manger. See App. 48. Santa Claus, on the other hand, was located across the walkway, situated between the 13' tall tree and the 14' tall menorah. These token figures simply did not substantially detract from the unconstitutional sectarian message conveyed by the original display. See Schundler I, 104 F.3d at 1452.
Q. Apart from the menorah and the nativity scene, can you recall any other displays erected on the city's initiative that have been erected in front of City Hall?
A. I'm sure there have been.
Q. Do you have any specific recollections of any examples, as we sit here today?
A. We have had memorial week out there, we have flags out there, as you know, which is right in front of City Hall, celebrating every group under the sun.

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