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> Blog: A Christmas Carol from the ACLU

ACLU Cases Defending Religious Freedom The ACLU and Freedom of Religion and Belief CASES > Case: Moreno v. Ector County School Board > Victory: The Challenge to Intelligent Design > Litigation: The Mt. Soledad Cross LEARN MORE > Christmas and the ACLU > USA Today: A Fictional 'War on Christmas' > How the ACLU Didn't Steal Christmas AUDIO FROM THE 2006 MEMBERSHIP CONFERENCE > Program Director Jeremy Gunn > ACLU Legal Director Steve Shapiro > ACLU of Pennsylvania Attorney Vic Walczak

Religion is pervasive in the public square in the United States - and it is constitutionally protected. The ACLU has long defended individuals, families, and religious communities who wish to manifest their religion in public. Particularly when compared to other industrialized democracies, religion plays a prominent role in American public life. Churches, synagogues, mosques, temples, cathedrals, and Gurdwaras are plainly visible in the public sphere and their right to display religious symbols and to construct religious edifices is protected by the Constitution and by statutes. The ACLU has actively supported the right of people to preach their religion in public places and to go door-to-door to spread their religious messages. The Constitution properly protects the right of religious figures to preach their messages over the public airwaves. Religious books, magazines, and newspapers are freely published and delivered through the U.S. Postal System. No other industrialized democracy has as much religion in the public square as does the United States.

Some people, however, mistakenly use the word "public" when they really mean "governmental." This can be seen, for example, with Ten Commandments monuments. The right of churches and families to erect such monuments on their own property is constitutionally protected, regardless of whether it is public or private and regardless of whether someone is offended or not. A Christian cross that is fully visible from a public sidewalk is constitutionally protected when placed in front of a church. But if that same cross were moved across the street and placed in front of city hall, it would violate the Constitution. The issue is not "religion in the public square" - as the rhetoric misleadingly suggests - but whether the government should be making decisions about whose sacred texts and symbols should be placed on government property and whose should be rejected.

North Carolina Appeals Court Allows ACLU Lawsuit Over Court Swearing-in Practice to Go Forward
RALEIGH, NC - A unanimous North Carolina Court of Appeals today ruled that the American Civil Liberties Union of North Carolina can proceed with its lawsuit challenging state courts' practice of refusing to allow people of non-Christian faiths to swear religious oaths using any text other than the Christian Bible.

Georgia County Agrees to Remove Ten Commandments Display from Courthouse
ATLANTA--A federal judge today approved an order proposed jointly by Barrow County and the American Civil Liberties Union of Georgia requiring the removal of a Ten Commandments display from the county courthouse.

ACLU Applauds Supreme Court Ruling in Kentucky Ten Commandments Case
WASHINGTON -- The American Civil Liberties Union today applauded a Supreme Court ruling that Ten Commandments displays in two Kentucky courthouses are unconstitutional. The ruling came in a case brought by the ACLU of Kentucky.

ACLU Urges Supreme Court to Protect Religious Liberty in Ten Commandments Case
WASHINGTON-The Supreme Court today heard oral arguments on the constitutionality of Ten Commandments displays on government land and buildings in two separate cases, including a successful challenge by the American Civil Liberties Union of Kentucky to courthouse displays.

Supreme Court Agrees to Review Two Challenges to Government-Endorsed Ten Commandments Displays
WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court announced today that it will take up the constitutionality of Ten Commandments displays on government land and buildings in two separate cases, including a successful challenge by the American Civil Liberties Union of Kentucky to a courthouse display.

Complaint in Green v. Haskell County

McCreary County v. ACLU, 03-1693. Cert Petition

Interested Persons Memo on First Amendment concerns with Juvenile Justice Legislation

STATEMENT OF JAMES "JIM" GREEN