Xmas and the First Amendment

Great Debates
1

The First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States:

[QUOTE=US Constitution]
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
[/QUOTE]

The courts have ruled that an actual law is not actually required; anything that gives the appearance of official approval of a religion is also forbidden. Prayer isn’t permitted in schools that receive government fund because that could be taken for government endorsement of Christianity. SCOTUS has ruled that the “Establishment Clause” also applies to the individual state governments; Roy Moore was fired from his office as Chief Justice of the Alabama Supreme Court because he refused to remove the Ten Commandments displayed in his courtroom, again because this gave the impression of government support for a particular religion. There are other such cases, all of which affirm that appearing to support a religion is just as unconstitutional as actually passing a law that supports one.

[QUOTE=5 USC § 6103]
(a) The following are legal public holidays:
New Year’s Day, January 1.
Birthday of Martin Luther King, Jr., the third Monday in January.
Washington’s Birthday, the third Monday in February.
Memorial Day, the last Monday in May.
Independence Day, July 4.
Labor Day, the first Monday in September.
Columbus Day, the second Monday in October.
Veterans Day, November 11.
Thanksgiving Day, the fourth Thursday in November.
Christmas Day, December 25.
[/QUOTE]

(Emphasis mine.)

Now here we have an actual law - US Code Title 5, Part III, Subpart E, Chapter 61, Subchapter I, § 6103 - which decrees that a major religious holiday (celebrating the supposed birth of an important Christian religious figure) is to be observed as a federal law.

[QUOTE=5 USC § 6103]
Sec. 1-4. Days designated as legal holidays. In each year the first day of January (known as New Year’s Day), the fifteenth day of January of each year prior to 1986, and commencing on the twentieth day of January in 1986, the first Monday occurring on or after January fifteenth (known as Martin Luther King Day), the twelfth day of February (known as Lincoln Day), the third Monday in February (known as Washington’s Birthday), the last Monday in May (known as Memorial Day or Decoration Day), the fourth day of July (known as Independence Day), the first Monday in September (known as Labor Day), the second Monday in October (known as Columbus Day), the eleventh day of November (known as Veterans’ Day) and the twenty-fifth day of December (known as Christmas) and any day appointed or recommended by the Governor of this state or the President of the United States as a day of thanksgiving, fasting or religious observance, shall each be a legal holiday, except that whenever any of such days which are not designated to occur on Monday, occurs upon a Sunday, the Monday next following such day shall be a legal holiday and whenever any of such days occurs upon a Saturday, the Friday immediately preceding such day shall be a legal holiday. When any such holiday, except holidays in January and December, occurs on a school day, each local and regional board of education may close the public schools under its jurisdiction for such day or hold a session of the public schools on such day, provided, if a session is held, the board shall require each school to hold a suitable nonsectarian educational program in observance of such holiday. If a holiday in January or December occurs on a school day, there shall be no session of the public schools on such day.
[/QUOTE]

(Again, emphasis mine.)

As noted above, SCOTUS has ruled that the Establishment Clause applies also to the states. But here we have a state law - 2011 Connecticut Code Title 1, Chapter 2, Section 1-4 - stating that the same religious holiday is also to be observed as a legal holiday in the state of Connecticut.

Can somebody tell me how these two laws, and other state laws listing legal holidays, fail to be in violation of the First Amendment?

2

They might have a secular purpose which could save them. Although any secular purpose it has (such as freeing up a lot of people so they can be together) is very much linked with the religion. You could say “it’s cultural” but that’s missing the point that religion is part of culture so it doesn’t change much to its religious character.

Yes, it does appear to be in violation of the first amendment and the separation of Church and State. Consider how much of a fuss would be kicked up if the gov’t did the same for the first and last days of Ramadan.

As to why it hasn’t been struck down, likely because no one has bothered to sue.

3

The government can declare whatever days it wants for holidays. Christmas is a secular holiday anyway (there are plenty of nonreligious elements; Santa Claus and presents have no religious basis nowadays) and all the government is doing is taking a day off, not celebrating anything.

4

A quick Google search turns up the following:

"In 1998, an Ohio lawyer named Richard Ganulin sued the federal government, seeking to remove Christmas from the list of federal holidays. Enduring the inevitable comparisons to the Grinch who stole Christmas, Ganulin argued that the official status of the Christmas holiday amounted to a government endorsement of Christianity, in violation of the Establishment Clause.

In 1999, the federal district court dismissed Ganulin’s lawsuit, holding that “the establishment of Christmas Day as a legal public holiday does not violate the Establishment Clause because it has a valid secular purpose, it does not have the effect of endorsing religion in general or Christianity in particular, and it does not impermissibly cause excessive entanglement between church and state." That decision was later upheld by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit."

5

Ceremonial deism.

6

Really? What secular purpose is served by celebrating the alleged birthday of the founder of a prominent religion?

It doesn’t? Why not? Because you say so? What a crock of shit.

Yeah, because you’re permitting it. Otherwise, self-serving horse puckey.

The first amendment guarantees freedom to believe in whatever crap you choose to believe in–nowhere does it permit to declare anything, pro or con, about a particular religious doctrine–yet the government acts entirely otherwise and says “We’re not making an exception to these plain rules about Christianity.”

Can you fucking imagine the outrage if the government declared Hanukkah or Ramadan as legal holidays?

7

I’d be okay with it. We’ve already got Christmas on the books, after all.

8

I grew up in New York - Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur were (and still are, AFAIK) holidays from (public) school.

9

Let’s move this over to Great Debates.

Colibri
General Questions Moderator

10

How many people who celebrate Christmas do you think really give a shit about Jesus? It is a secular holiday and has been for more than a century.

The fact that it conveniently coincides with a Christian holiday is a convenient coincidence. (Unless you’re a Russian Orthodox or something.)

11

One explanation: Employees (and students) are allowed to take their own religious holidays off in order to permit them free exercise of their religion. If it’s the case that this would mean very few would then be in the office (or the classroom) then it would make sense to simply close down entirely. What would be the point of having, for example, a school open for only a few non-Christian students and teachers?

I’d guess that if a particular school (or business) consisted mainly of, say, Jewish or Muslim students (or employees), it would be efficient to close down for those religions’ holidays. I’d bet that this sometimes happens. I believe there’s a major camera and electronics store in NYC that is closed on the Jewish sabbath and other Jewish holy days.

12

The government gives lots of days off for other events as well. Memorial Day and Labor Day are not religious holidays yet those are also government holidays. Unless you want force a rule that there should be no governmental holidays at all, Christmas is at least as good as any other. Most people would take that as a vacation day if they had to so it wouldn’t be productive to to open government offices anyway. I don’t see the day off itself as being a violation of the separation Church and State. You don’t have to do anything in particular on that day other than enjoy a day off.

13

B&H, but that’s not relevant at all as far as the First Amendment is concerned.

14

As the courts noted, the setting aside of December 25 as a holiday does not promote religion. No one is ordered or encouraged to participate in religious observances. Laws that have religious associations, such as prohibitions against the Sunday sales of liquor and wine tend to be not enforced on Christmas for those few retail establishments that stay open.

Extending the discussion outside the court:
The day is widely celebrated as a family holiday by the vast number of citizens, regardless of religious belief.
It is so widely celebrated, that most industries, including retail, shut down on that day of their own accord. In fact, most retail outlets close early on December 24, which is not a religious holiday for anyone, (unless you are old enough to remember Catholic Ember Days).

Regardless of any religious associations the date may have for the slowly shrinking number of Christians in the nation, the day has long since passed into a general national holiday that is celebrated by people of all and no religious beliefs. Clearly its origins were religious, but so is the origin of the word holiday (holy day) and no one would argue, today, that we should replace the word holiday with the word hiatus or feast or some other synonym.

15

The Constitution does not address whether a private business can shut down on any day it chooses to, but rather on whether the government can promote a state religion. It clearly says it cannot. Nonetheless, the federal government has declared Christmas (and pay special attention to those first pesky six letters of the holiday’s name, kids) as an official governmental holiday. You can talk yourselves blue in the face justifying this, but to anyone with half a functional brain and an ability to parse English prose, it is a flat contradiction in terms.

16

Dunno about you, but to me Christmas is a pagan holiday. Santa Claus, decorated trees, Frosty the Snowman, presents, feasting, mistletoe…nothing religious about that. Fuck that Jesus dude – he’s trying to ride on pagan coattails.

17

Blood would flow freely in the streets if the Government were to decide, in the interest of secularism, to declare Christmas a working day and December 26th a national holiday celebrating the winter season.

19

Just because a special day has religious antecedents does not mean that it can’t become secularized. There’s several others that have done so: Valentines Day, St Patrick’s Day, and Halloween. Unless you’re going to argue that giving heart-shaped boxes of candy as gifts, drinking green beer, or dressing up as a comic book character are religious practices. (Yes, I know those aren’t official holidays; please no one claim that I said they were.)

Also note that New Year’s Day is a Roman Catholic holyday. Yes, the holyday has a different name and is unrelated to the secular holiday, but it’s always on Jan 1. Does the coincidence mean that the first of January can’t be a national holiday because it seems to be supporting a particular religion?

20

I strongly suspect that the majority of non-Christians in the US (such as myself) also celebrate Christmas. If so, that would strongly indicate to me that Christmas is a secular holiday regardless of its history and significance to Christians. I wonder if there is any way to know what percentage of non-Christians celebrate Christmas.

21

It’s easy to think of one’s own habits and surroundings as the default one that goes without saying and doesn’t have any specific features. Thinking of Christmas in the US as not part of a religion is like thinking of your particular brand of English as the one that doesn’t have an accent.
A holiday can have religious and secular aspects (such as getting drunk on St Patrick’s Day). Often, when a holiday is very commonly celebrated, it acquires aspects which are secular. It still does not take away that Christmas is a Christian holiday. When a religious celebration so permeates a culture that it even people who aren’t part of that religion take part in it, it’s still religious. If you were in a Muslim-majority country, having large swathes of the gov’t shut down by law during Ramadan wouldn’t be an entanglement of State and religion? If you were in Israel and large swathes of the gov’t shut down by law during Yom Kippur, that wouldn’t be an entanglement of religion and State?