Court nixes religious displays in postal station (2nd Circuit Court of Appeals)

NEW YORK (Reuters) – A Connecticut church may operate a postal station without violating the constitutional separation of church and state, as long as it clearly distinguishes it from private space, a federal appeals court ruled on Thursday.

A panel of the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said the church in the town of Manchester did violate the U.S. Constitution by including "religious displays" such as prayer cards, pamphlets and church-related videos inside a postal station it had set up.

But it said the church could fix the violations by removing the displays and providing markers that make clear to customers where the postal station ends and church property begins.

Bertram Cooper, a former Manchester resident, had sued the Full Gospel Interdenominational Church and the U.S. Postal Service in 2003, saying the displays made him "very uncomfortable" and constituted government-sponsored religious activity.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20090820/us_nm/us_usa_religion_postoffice_3


Ruling by the panel:

"We conclude that Cooper had standing to raise the Establishment Clause challenge and that an Establishment Clause violation occurred, but as to relief, we require no more than that the postal counter be free of religious material, and that visual cues distinguish the space operating as a postal facility from the space functioning as purely private property."


Judges on the panel:

Wesley, Richard C. Nominated by George W. Bush on March 5, 2003.
Jacobs, Dennis G. Nominated by George H.W. Bush on March 20, 1992.
Crotty, Paul Austin. Nominated by George W. Bush on February 14, 2005.

http://www.ca2.uscourts.gov/decisions/isysquery/59800934-84de-4672-8439-e840c6e02df8/2/doc/07-4826-cv_opn.pdf

Every year, the USPS issues Christmas stamps, always featuring a representation of a classic artwork (usually of European origin, wtf?) that depicts the Madonna and Child. If this post office in a church displayed a poster issued by the USPS promoting the annual Xmas stamp, would it have run afoul of this decision?

...every year. You have your choice of a "religious" Christmas stamp (yeah, usually madonna-type, sometimes angel-type, often based on Renaissance art; ) a "secular" Christmas stamp (snowman, poinsettia, rudolph, etc.) a Chanukah stamp (last year a nice menorah, IIRC,) a Kwanzaa stamp (not new every year but usually available; ) and sometimes a Ramadan stamp if that's falling at the end of the year.

Some years they have also done New Years' stamps with noisemakers-and-confetti or similar themes.

They try to please everyone, it sells more stamps.

If the station chose to emphasize ONLY the religious stamp, it might indeed be running afoul of the decision.

thoughtfully,
Bright

(edited to remove the smilies I forgot to turn off...)