Each holiday season brings festivities, family time and a welcome break from the daily grind. For local government attorneys and officials, the holiday season also involves important issues of the types of holiday displays a city or county may authorize within its rights of way, parks and other public properties.
The use of local government property for government-sponsored holiday displays or for private religious expression implicates the Establishment Clause and the Free Speech Clause of the First Amendment. Under the First Amendment, local governments may erect holiday displays on their property, and those displays may include religious holiday symbols such as a nativity scene and menorah only if they are displayed amongst secular holiday items such as the Christmas tree. Additionally, in locations deemed to be a public forum for free expression, local governments must allow private religious expression, but may prohibit persons from placing unattended displays there or adopt other policies governing how such displays will be handled (such as policies addressing size, length of display, safety of the proposed location and installation).
In Merry Litigation and Happy Attorneys’ Fees: Holiday Displays on Downtown Public Property (Florida Bar Journal, December 2011), WSH Public Land Use and Zoning Law Group Chair Susan L. Trevarthen, and Associate Johanna M. Lundgren, address the First Amendment requirements for both private and government-sponsored holiday displays located on local government property. To read the article, click here.
Author(s): Susan L. Trevarthen & Johanna M. Lundgren
