Are religious displays on public grounds violations of the First Amendment?
Students in Montville, New Jersey* from William Patterson University and The College of New Jersey are protesting the city’s public Christmas Nativity scene, claiming that it is a violation of the First Amendment. David Iacoviello, president of the Society of American Youth Secularists, or S.A.Y.S. at William Paterson University, requested the religious icons be removed at a township committee meeting last week. The committee discussed the matter in closed session with legal counsel and made its decision to keep the display, said township administrator Frank Bastone. I agree with the students, but probably for different reasons. Since the Nativity scene is placed in the township (government) lawn, every Montville resident is compelled, through taxation, to paying for this display; in essence, the subsidizing of religion. This is more of a property allocation issue than it is a first amendment issue (since our rights come from our ability to reason as rational and social animals, not as
