PROVIDENCE -- The Rhode Island Affiliate of the American Civil Liberties Union filed a federal lawsuit yesterday claiming that the holiday display in front of Cranston City Hall violates the Constitution.
The ACLU is not asking the court to force the removal of the display -- which is scheduled to come down Jan. 1 -- but is suing the city and Mayor Stephen P. Laffey to block the display in future years.
Earlier in the month, Laffey invited residents to put seasonal decorations that he deemed appropriate on City Hall's front lawn. A menorah was the first item erected, soon followed by an inflatable Santa and snowman, and then by a Nativity scene. Other additions include 15 pink flamingos wearing Santa hats, a "season's greetings" sign from the Teamsters, an angel and plastic snow dogs.
The ACLU takes particular issue with the menorah and Nativity scene, symbols that it says deliver religious messages.
"Placement of these religious symbols at the threshold of the seat of government for the City of Cranston . . . has the principal and primary effect of advancing religion and [conveys] a plain message that the [city and Laffey] endorse, sanction, promote, support and approve of the overtly religious message," the lawsuit says.
ACLU Executive Director Steven Brown said that the snowman, Santas and other nonreligious aspects of the display are there simply to circumvent legal precedents regarding the separation of church and state.
Brown went one step further, saying it "seems likely" that Laffey invited people to display the objects simply so he could obtain publicity and gain political points.
Laffey denied the accusation, but the display yesterday catapulted the Republican mayor once again onto the national media airwaves. He appeared on conservative pundit Bill O'Reilly's FOX News show, The O'Reilly Factor, spoke to CBS radio's national news audience, and did a radio interview with Oliver North, the guest host of the nationally syndicated Sean Hannity Show.
"Obviously, nobody is trying to establish any new state religion here. It's just a freedom of expression, and I always thought the ACLU was for free expression," Laffey said outside City Hall yesterday. "We can see that when Dickens wrote about Scrooge or Dr. Seuss wrote about the Grinch, they weren't just fictional characters. They really exist, and I can only hope that between now and Christmas Day, the ACLU sees the Ghost of Christmas future and changes its heart about the holiday season."
Laffey said the ACLU is "a very extreme group" taking a position that 90 percent of the public doesn't support.
The mayor said that before encouraging the placement of items on the front lawn, he got the free legal advice of two specialists: Norman G. Orodenker, the partner overseeing the city's legal work at the Providence law firm of Tillinghast Licht Perkins Smith & Cohen, and Thomas Marcelle, his college roommate, who successfully argued before the U.S. Supreme Court in 2001 that the use of a school for meetings by a Christian organization was constitutional.
"Does anybody see the establishment of a church here?" Laffey asked reporters gathered outside City Hall yesterday. "I didn't think so."
THE ACLU, however, sees things differently.
"In order to conduct city business in Cranston City Hall, anyone must pass a 5-foot-high menorah and a life-sized Nativity scene," said lawyer Miriam Weizenbaum, who along with Amato A. DeLuca, is representing the ACLU for free. "They create the appearance that the city is endorsing religion."
The ACLU is bringing the lawsuit on behalf of Grace C. Osediacz, a Cranston resident who has directed an afterschool program for the School Department at Bain Middle School since June.
Osediacz said that on Dec. 15 she was leaving a meeting at the school administration building next to City Hall, saw the display and called the ACLU.
"I feel very strongly that religion simply is not the business of government. Rhode Island was founded on the principle that religion and government should be separate," Osediacz said. "I'm really outraged that any public official would invite the placement of religious symbols right in front of City Hall, at the seat of government."
Osediacz declined to identify what religion, if any, she practices, saying "that's my business and no one else's."
The ACLU also takes issue with a City Hall policy that calls for "appropriate holiday and seasonal decoration[s]" and leaves it up to the mayor to decide what is and is not proper.
"The policy gives the mayor complete discretion to decide what types of displays -- displays being a form of speech -- are acceptable, without any guidelines whatsoever," Weizenbaum said.
IN THE 1980S, Pawtucket faced a similar lawsuit from the ACLU. That case was eventually settled in 1984 by the U.S. Supreme Court in the city's favor. The city annually erected a display in a park owned by a nonprofit organization in the heart of the city's shopping district. The display included reindeer, a Santa Claus, a Christmas tree, a banner reading "Season's Greetings," and a Nativity scene. Virtually unchanged, the display is now at a city park.
The ACLU said yesterday this case is different because Cranston's display is at the seat of city government and is much smaller than the Pawtucket display. In addition, the snowman and Santa were placed there after the menorah "as a pretext" to allow the city to pass constitutional muster, the ACLU said.
When asked about menorahs at Providence City Hall and the State House, the ACLU's Brown said he also had concerns about those, but no member of the public has complained. (Representatives from Providence and the governor's office said their displays are legal.)
Laffey says it will cost the city nothing to defend the case. However, if defeated, the city might be ordered to pay the ACLU's legal costs.
Three national conservative organizations -- the American Center for Law and Justice, the Rutherford Institute, and the Alliance Defense Fund -- have all volunteered their services to the city.
The Alliance Defense Fund says it provides "the resources that will keep the door open for the spread of the Gospel through the legal defense and advocacy of religious freedom, the sanctity of human life, and traditional family values."
