An e-mailer asks a good question:
That article from the IndyStar to which you posted a link regarding the
“Christmas” display at IU law school being banned made me chuckle in a
“what’s next” sort of way.
But it, along with what I’ve been able to gather (courtesy of David Limbaugh
and on my own), makes me seriously wonder when (no longer if) some court
somewhere will declare Christmas as a national holiday both a violation of
the Establishment Clause and the Equal Protection Clause (since there is no
corresponding federal holiday for all workers for Rosh Hashanah or Yom
Kippur or for Ramadan).
The logic of how we can keep Christmas (not “Winter Holiday”) as a federal
holiday, supported by the force of government, yet we cannot have a crèche
or, in the case of IU law school, even a fake-snow-covered tree that could
be interpreted as being a Christmas tree (which the SCOTUS has said is a
secular symbol, anyway) escapes me. Logically, it does not follow how we can
have the one and not the others if we accept as given the current trend in
Establishment Clause jurisprudence. We just simply allow the former, logic
notwithstanding.
I am deeply concerned that, one of these days, a court somewhere will take
the Establishment Clause path we’re presently on to its logical conclusion.
“Government, you must be open for business on December 25, and government
workers, you must report to work on that day or else take a personal leave
day.” Do you not see that coming?