God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen-
Heard, Alex
God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemenand Women, a Blaks, and hispanics, and Jews, and Scientologists, and nians, and Eskimos, and Rasrafarians, and... By Alex Heard WASHINGTON, DEC. 20-The US....
...Add a woman Santa...
...Add three wise women to each scene...
...The First Amendment case, originally considered what former Justice John Harlan termed %peewee,” revolved around the question: Does municipal sponsorship of a publicly displayed creche (nativity scene) violate the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment...
...Remove a “40-foot Christmas tree strung with lights:’ This is mean to trees and discriminates against desert municipalities...
...Donnelly...
...A team of reindeer pulling Santa’s sleigh, set on an elevated runway...
...This standard has as its basis a remark made in conference by Justice Powell:* “YOU know, I’m just not convinced that those other objects in the display serve to effectively ‘neutralize’ it...
...Rong, Widmar vs...
...They argue that because the creche at issue is only one symbol among many that are “neutral” in tone and content, the specifically religious significance of the creche is “neutralized” as well...
...The display at issue in this case includes a nativity scene (creche...
...But in a line of cases beginning with Marbury vs...
...Add representatives of the other major world religions, including Rama and Krishna, The Buddha, Confucius, Lao Tzu, Muhammed, and Moses...
...We make these changes: Keep “a talking wishing well...
...A 40-foot Christmas tree strung with lights...
...Remove the “group of caroler/musiciansl’ These are corny...
...I think they would add a more modern, commercial, and secular notel’ Justice Marshall awakened and interjected “I hate the Smurfs...
...Add the Smurfs, The Grinch, and Mr...
...Keep “a team of reindeer pulling Santa’s sleigh” with this change: unharness the reindeer, allowing them to graze free and peaceful in front of the sleigh...
...Santa’s house, inhabited by a live Santa who distributed candy...
...Madison and Martin vs...
...Remove “three painted wooden Christmas-tree cutouts...
...The Court declares that there will be made a Town Tape, to be played continuously during the Yule season...
...Our opinion takes into account the views of hundreds of disparate political and religious groups, and believe me, we heard from them all...
...Kids...
...New Right groups, on the other hand, lambasted the Court’s “display guidelines” as the most flagrant example of judicial activism since Roe vs...
...The subsequent vicious fusillade of snowballs launched against members of the U.S...
...With these changes, the judgment of the Court of Appeals is Justice Marshall dissenting...
...These are just tacky...
...Nyquist, Wright vs...
...Anyway, though the Court decided to find in favor of the petitioners, it explicitly rejects the temptation to promulgate a shoddily reasoned and simplistic declaration of legal principle...
...Oregon, US...
...A group of caroler/musician figures in oldfashioned dress, standing on a low platform and surrounded by six artificial candles...
...In recent months, the case had been the subject of much heated debate and commentary by the nation’s most vigilant creche-watchers, from James Kilpatrick to Richard Cohen...
...Cutout letters, colored in fluorescent paint, that spell SEASON’S GREETINGS...
...In addition, a portly, goodnatured Santa, while a reassuring symbol of mirth and bounty, is an offensive stereotype to some...
...Mxyzptlk, Batman, Bullwinkle, Scoobie Doo, Barney Rubble, Henry, Foghorn Leghorn, The Tazmanian Devil, Fat Albert, Josie and the Pussycats, Steve Roper, Johnny Quest, Mark Trail, and Mr...
...Keep “a small village composed of four houses and a church...
...Keep “Santa’s house, inhabited by a live Santa who distributes candy” and “a long garland hung from candy-striped poles:’ with these changes: Add Santas of several different races and ages...
...Wade...
...Keep the existing creche, but add five more family scenes, featuring families that are: Black, Hispanic, Asian, other, and gay...
...Our decision instead is based on what journalists and other commentators will doubtless dub the “Menorah System’La multipartite guideline for creche-display acceptability standards...
...The American Civil Liberties Union denounced the Court’s failure to ban all public displays of creches...
...Petitioners (the City of Pawtucket) characterize Christmas as a national folk fedval that derives from, but does not necessarily carry, the religious spirit of the nativity...
...Supreme Court jolted the nation this week with its decision in City of Pawtucket vs...
...We can do whatever we like...
...Reversed This Court should have included the Cosby I dissent Alex Heard is a Washington, D.C, ectomorph...
...The Court agreed, however, that it could never give judicial imprimatur to such characters as Johnny Quest, Garfield, Nancy and Sluggo, any of the creatures of Mr...
...Plaintiffs (the people who are on the side that is against the City of Pawtucket) say “phooey...
...Excerpts from the 7-to-I decision (Marshall dissenting Rehnquist not showing up) are printed below: Justice Blackmun, wishing you and yours a safe and merry holiday season, delivered the opinion of the Court...
...We know some might quarrel with our guidelines...
...However, to comply with the Establishment Clause, add a synagogue, a mosque, a dianetics center, and a shopping mall...
...And as the traditional start of the Christmas seasonThanksgiving-approached, fundamentalists, civil libertarians, and confused municipal officials pressed for a quick resolution...
...Garlands must be hung from representations of root or stalk vegetables (carrots, celery, etc...
...North Carolina State, the Court has established its authority to consider legal, religious, sociological, medical, political, and speculative reasons in deciding pretty much whatever it wants to, and telling the states they’d better go along...
...The Tape should contain samples of all types of popular music enjoyed by Americans, the categories to be defined by ASCAP...
...One creche should feature a Joseph who is engaged in a nontraditional male role, such as changing the swaddling of the infant Jesus...
...Hunter’s Lessee, extending to such cases as Muller vs...
...Initial reaction to the decision suggests that it has pleased almost no one...
...A long garland hung from candy-striped poles...
...Both arguments are compelling, and for a while there this Court just didn’t know what to do...
...We wouldn’t have one on our lawn but it’s okay...
...Vincent, and The State of North Carolina vs...
...Berke Breathed, and Cathy (Justice O’Connor dissenting...
...The Court understands that it traditionally has not quoted conference proceedings in its opinions, but why should we worry about precedent...
...I like those Smurfs...
...Change the message from SEASON’S GREETINGS to HEY, HAVE A HAPPY...
...Inclusion of such quasi-religious figures as the Reverend Sun Myung Moon and Jerry Garcia should be dictated by local community standards...
...Wilderness, Committee for Public Education vs...
...This then we do today...
...Court of Appeals for the First Circuit-the first of many manifestations of a wave of mass hysteria that swept over the nation during deliberations on this case-only increased the Court’s confusion...
...A small “village” composed of four houses and a church...
...Chambers, Mann vs...
...I like the Cosby Kids...
...One high-ranking official of the American Bar Association did, however, express pleasure that the Court’s “hopelessly tangled reasoning will generate years of further litigation...
...Knekk, 1906...
...Four large, five-pointed stars covered with small electric lights...
...In the words of Justice Holmes: Oh yeah...
...This message is more in keeping with the age...
...Keep “cutout letters, colored in fluorescent paint...
...Remove “four large five-pointed stars covered with small white electric lights!’ The Court agrees that these could be viewed as an unsavory endorsement of Zionism...
...Dithers...
...Now, if you put in the Smurfs, say, or even the Flintstones, that might be different...
...Because there is nothing that we would like better than to take their actions into account and to make them all pretty miserable with our decision...
...One Man’s Opinion, Marsh vs...
...Well I’d like to show them a couple of things (Cotton vs...
...We regret such blatant acts of political pressure, performed largely by groups who support the position that we affirm today, though our decision has nothing to do with the pressure they applied...
...In addition to the nativity figurines, the 1981-82 display also included: A “talking” wishing well...
...Therefore add ectomorphic and mesomorphic Santas...
...Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, be upheld...
...Three painted wooden Christmas-tree cutouts...
...We’re the Supreme Court...
...All Santas must distribute wholesome and nutritious foods such as brown-rice cakes and nine-grain bread, not candy...
...Because every artistfrom Elvis Presley to Michael Jackson to Willie Nelson to The Psychedelic Furs to George Handel-have cut LPs that are appropriate for the holiday season, producing this Tape should not present a problem to municipalities...
...They insist the Establishment Clause requires government to expunge all religious content from any holiday celebrations it sponsors, and they demand that the district court injunction prohibiting the creche display, subsequently affirmed by the U.S...
...Among them: Mr...
...Magoo, The Grinch, Betty Boop, Felix the Cat, Scrooge, Mr...
...not from “candy-striped” poles...
...For over 40 years the City of Pawtucket, Rhode Island, has observed the Christmas season by sponsoring traditional displays, decorations, and music in four locations throughout the city...
...There followed a lively and often acrimonious debate on the relative virtues of many American print and animation cartoon characters, all of whom for many years have provided the American people with hours of lively pleasure and fodder for good-natured debate...
...Dithers...
Vol. 15 • December 1983 • No. 9
