Catholic World News News Feature

US court bars Christian symbols, allows Jewish and Islamic symbols, in schools February 08, 2006

A US federal court has ruled that public schools in New York City can display Jewish and Islamic symbols, but not Christian symbols.

In a split decision, the 2nd Circuit court of Appeals said that the US Constitution prohibited setting up a Christmas crèche in New York schools, although a menorah was allowed for Hanukkah and a crescent-and-star were shown during Ramadan.

Richard Thompson-- the chief counsel for the Thomas More Law Center, which brought the case on behalf of New York resident Andrea Skoros and her children-- charged that the court's decision "says it is legitimate to discriminate against Christians in the largest public school system in the country." The ruling, he said, "should be a wake-up call for Christians across this nation.”

Judge Chester Straub, who dissented in the panel's 2-1 decision, wrote that the majority ruling creates a situation in which "a reasonable student observer would perceive a message of endorsement of Judaism and Islam and a reasonable parent observer would perceive a message that Judaism and Islam are favored and that Christianity is disfavored.”

The Thomas More Law Center announced plans to appeal the ruling.