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The Establishment Clause at Christmastime

Updated: Oct 6, 2022

by Maddie Thomas January 5, 2022


During December, there was a large, brightly-lit Santa face in the South Unit. It hung on a pillar, fully four feet tall, facing inwards towards the South Unit office so that everyone leaving South Unit downstairs was confronted with the rather garish sight.


This is just one of many Christmas decorations that seem to have appeared out of nowhere after Thanksgiving in the common areas of Centerville High School. The halls were decked with garlands and ornaments, and Christmas trees took up residence opposite the East and West Unit Offices. These Christmas baubles were supplemented by a small, unlit menorah on the corner of the counter in the East Unit office. We all appreciated the imminent arrival of Winter Break, particularly since exams have been canceled. But are our extensive Christmas decorations the answer to celebrate the season of rest and family togetherness?


Most students should be aware that the First Amendment grants certain freedoms to citizens. These include certain religious rights:

“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.”


We refer to the first part of the preceding sentence as the Establishment Clause. It means that the church (or the mosque, temple, synagogue, etc.) and state are supposed to be separate. Centerville High School is a public school and therefore is included as a government institution. Despite this constitutional instruction, schools have been a battleground for over 50 years concerning the establishment of religion.


The Supreme Court ruled in Engel v. Vitale (1962) that it is unconstitutional to compose an official school prayer and encourage its recitation in public schools. Even the Pledge of Allegiance, which many classrooms recite daily, speaking towards the nearest American flag, has been challenged for its inclusion of the phrase “One nation, indivisible, under God.” Legal scholar Jesse Choper explains that the phrase “Under God” wasn’t even included in the initial pledge of allegiance, but rather was added “at the height of the Cold War and McCarthyism, to reaffirm the core difference between American society and ‘atheistic communism.’” He adds that according to then-President Eisenhower, the act’s purpose was to “proclaim ‘the dedication of our Nation and our people to the Almighty.’” Elk Grove Unified School District v. Newdow challenged the practice in schools on the grounds that it violated the Establishment Clause. Newdow, the father of a child in the school district, was an atheist. The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in Newdow’s favor that the phrase “Under God” violated the Establishment Clause; the school district appealed to the Supreme Court, but the case was dismissed because Newdow didn’t have full custody of his daughter and therefore didn’t have standing. The issue remains undecided on a national level.


So if even the Pledge of Allegiance is subject to constitutional dispute on religious grounds, how can we justify the presence of Christmas decorations in public schools?


For one, there is no explicit reference to Jesus or God in these decorations. What we have in the high school is more commercialized and less explicitly religious. What we must ask is, is Christmas in America cultural or religious? Is it both?


If the holiday is a cultural event- in other words, that Christmas as the mainstream American public views it is a secular event perhaps marked by gift-giving and spending time with family- then Christmas decorations do not violate the Establishment clause. But no reasonable person would say that Christmas is a wholly secular holiday, just as most would say that it’s not entirely a religious occurrence.


In all probability, Christmas is both a secular event and a religious holiday. I was raised in a Christian household, so I don’t have the perspective of students who have been raised in a different faith tradition. I can’t speak to the degree of offense such policies may provoke in the religious minority student body or the larger community. The implications for the separation of church and state, however, concern me. As the share of the US population that self-identifies as Christian continues to decline year by year, such concerns will become more prominent. Perhaps we should reconsider for next year’s holiday season.


What do you think? We want to hear from Centerville students. Email us with your take at centervillejournalism@gmail.com and we will try our best to publish it on the website! Make sure to include your name and advisory so we know we are hearing from a CHS student.

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