Freedom Writer - December 1994 [ref001] The GrinchEight years later By Valerie White, Esq.

Freedom Writer - December 1994

[ref001]

The GrinchEight years later

By Valerie White, Esq.

In December of 1986, I began my career as the grinch who stole Christmas. 
A friend and I complained to county and village officials in Hyde 
Park, Vermont, the little town where I practice law, that the more-than-a-quarter-century-old 
tradition of decorating the village Christmas tree on the courthouse 
lawn with a lighted cross was unconstitutional. And tactless. "It's 
not a religious symbol," we were told. "It's a memorial for a local 
hero." But it conveys a wrong impression, we argued. It gives Jews 
and Jehovah's Witnesses and Zen Buddhists and atheists and Christians 
the feeling that their courthouse is a Christian place.

The officials were unpersuaded.

I turned to the ACLU. (My friend has children in the school system 
and we agreed that I would carry on alone.) The ACLU lawyer wrote 
the officials. Their lawyer advised them. And in December of 1987 
the cross topped the tree again, this time with a little sign at the 
foot of the tree: "The presence of any religious symbol on this secular 
display is not intended as an endorsement of religion." I filed in 
Federal Court for an injunction. The officials promptly erected a 
lighted Frosty the Snowman and Santa Claus, hoping to escape through 
the plastic reindeer loophole created by the United States Supreme 
Court in the Pawtucket case.

I began my Warholian 15 minutes of fame. "Donahue." "Sally Jesse Rafael." 
_The_New_York_Times_, _The_Boston_Globe_, _The_Village_Voice_, _The_
LA_Times_, radio, including West German Radio and the BBC. The Freedom 
From Religion Foundation made me Freethinker of the Year. I got mountains 
of mail, more pro than con. One letter was addressed, "The Cross Lady, 
Hyde Park." The post office put it in my box.

We went to court on December 1, 1987 for the preliminary injunction 
hearing. My attorneys were superb. Jonathan Chase, former dean of 
the Vermont Law School, ably drafted the pleadings but died of leukemia 
before the hearing. John Schullenberger, dedicated, diligent, knowledgeable, 
and able to keep cool under pressure, argued at the hearing. We won. 
The magistrate recommended the injunction be issued. The county and 
village gave in. They stipulated to an injunction. The court awarded 
attorney fees.

The courthouse tree every year since has gleamed its pagan lights 
amid the snow without a cross. And I can walk up the slippery sidewalk 
beside it with a solstice glow in my humanist heart that the Establishment 
Clause is alive and well in the U.S. District Court for the district 
of Vermont.

Some time during the fray, I wrote some new words to "The Old Rugged 
Cross." I sang them for the Freedom From Religion Foundation when 
I accepted their award.

Then the ditty found its way onto the information superhighway through 
Larry Reyka's Little Coffeehouse, the humanist BBS. Then it escaped 
to a real coffeehouse in Columbus. And I learned the song was sung 
at the cabaret at the American Humanist Association meeting in Detroit.

As for me, my life has changed since 1986. I have become active in 
the freethought and humanist movement, and in the ACLU. Most of my 
neighbors have forgiven me. But the case has had one interesting effect.

During the litigation, community support for the cross was overwhelming. 
A local florist made up greenery crosses threaded with fairy lights 
and displayed them with the sign, "Show your support." People made 
their own. Lighted crosses went up on the feed store elevator, the 
drive-in, the antique store, the beauty parlor, silos, barns, and 
private homes all over the county.

I've thought they would slowly disappear. But last Christmas I counted 
25 lighted across on private property all over the county. I'll bet 
Lamoille County, Vermont is the only place in the country where Christmas 
is celebrated with so many lighted crosses. And isn't that a wonderful 
demonstration of the Free Exercise Clause!

_
Sidebar: [ref002]"The Old Lighted Cross"
Sidebar: [ref003]What does the Supreme Court say?
_

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Copyright 1995 IFAS
The Freedom Writer / ifas@crocker.com

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[ref003] court.html
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