Taxpayer money spent on lighting the city Christmas tree and put up secular holiday decorations is okay under the First Amendment, says a major supporter of the separation of church and state.
“A Christmas tree is secular, but the nativity scene is not. If the city wants to erect displays of the nativity scene standing alone, that is not constitutional,” said Sandhya Bathija, a communications associate for Americans United for Separation of Church and State. The group is a non-profit advocate, based in Washington, D.C., that supports the separation of church and state. Bathija added, “That is the line the Supreme Court has drawn, and that is the stance Americans United upholds.”
The Supreme Court case that Bathija referred to is to the 1984 case called Lynch v. Donnelly. The case involved a Rhode Island town that funded a Christmas display containing many secular Christmas symbols like Santa Claus and reindeer. But it also showcased a nativity scene of baby Jesus. The Supreme Court ruled 5-4 that including the nativity scene did not violate the First Amendment ban on government-establishment of religion. In the context of the secular holiday display, the court ruled, the nativity scene was merely a depiction of the Christmas holiday’s origin in history with the birth of Jesus.
In Clinton Square, the Syracuse holiday decorations also include a nativity scene depicting the birth of baby Jesus at the base of the city’s 70-foot Christmas tree. That manger scene was not paid for by taxpayer money, said city officials. Both the tree and the nativity scene were donated to the city, said city officials.
The city spends an average of $100,000 on decorating and celebrating the holiday season, according to Mary Beth Roach, the public information officer for the Syracuse Parks and Recreation Department. The majority of that money is spent on electricity and overtime for city staff.
This year, Roach said the city expects to spend less because it cut the expenditures on Clinton Square tree-lighting ceremony by $10,000. The city is also scaling back the number of funded ceremonies in different neighborhoods, she said.
The Syracuse Parks and Recreation Department decided to reduce holiday-season funding to improve the Syracuse in different ways, she said.
“We could spend $100,000 in time and money for events that are going to last for three weeks,” said Roach, “or we can take that money and put it towards building or other programs that will have longer lasting impact.”
(C.J. Baker is a junior majoring in broadcast journalism.)
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