PGHIMC - Pittsburgh Independent Media Center

Court Calls Plaintiff's Son "One Hyper Sensitive Catholic Child"
by Tom Merton Sunday, Mar. 14, 2004 at 5:40 AM

"Hyper sensitive." That's what you are if you live in New York, your child attends public school, you are concerned about your child's curriculum (as any parent should be), and you just happen to be Catholic.


A few years ago, the New York City Department of Education
initiated a "Holiday Displays" policy that governs the secular and religious symbols schools can display during the winter holiday season. Under the policy, schools are permitted to display the Jewish menorah and the Islamic star and crescent. In both the 2001 and the 2002 school years, the New York City Department of Education denied the request of a Catholic group to include a nativity scene among the other religious symbols permitted under the policy. In 2003, the mother of two elementary school children and a devout Catholic, petitioned the federal court in New York to balance the policy so that schools could display a nativity scene, a symbol of the Christian faith, in addition to symbols from other faiths.

A couple weeks ago, on February 18, 2004, the District Court for the Eastern District of New York rendered its decision on her petition [captioned Skoros v. City of New York, cv 02 6439(CPS) (E.D.N.Y. 2004)]. Instead of limiting its decision to the precise issue before it whether a nativity scene should be allowed under the Holiday Display policy the court went much further and mused about hypothetical Holiday Display policies that would not, in its view, violate the Establishment Clause of the Constitution. The court ruled that a policy permitting the display of the Islamic star and crescent as well as the Jewish menorah, but forbidding any "explicit Christian symbol," such as a nativity scene, a cross or anything else, would pass Constitutional muster.

Almost as an afterthought, the court denied the petition, but in doing so, it branded the mother's child as "one hyper sensitive Catholic child."

Disturbed by this ruling, I asked Stephen Mansfield, Ph.D., distinguished historian and acclaimed author, about the religious significance of the star and crescent to those of the Islamic faith. He explained that the star and crescent is viewed unequivocally as a symbol of Islam. Beyond appearing on the flag of some Middle Eastern nations, the symbol has a religious meaning associated with Allah.

In Skoros, the court characterized the policy of forbidding Christian symbols but permitting an Islamic symbol as a "model of neutralism and plurality." You don't need to be a Christian to understand that this is anything but promoting plurality. You don't need to be a Christian to see that our Judiciary is growing out of touch with the American people, making new law that we do not understand and law that is at odds with the Constitution and the vision of our Founding Fathers.

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