A federal judge for the US District Court for the Western District of Arkansas [official website] ruled [opinion] against Thursday that a nativity scene on Baxter County Courthouse grounds violates the First Amendment. The lawsuit was filed by the American Humanist Association (AHA) [advocacy website] on behalf of a Mountain Home resident. The court ordered Baxter County and County Judge Mikey Pendergrass to refrain from placing any “religiously sectarian” displays on the grounds of the courthouse, or to create a public forum on displays to integrate all faiths. AHA senior counsel, Monica Miller, said in a press release[text], “[t]his is a victory for the First Amendment and ensures that the government does not promote one religion over another, or religion over non-religion.”

Religious displays on public property remain controversial under the First Amendment. In September the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit [official website] ruled [opinion, PDF] that a six-foot-tall statue of Jesus may remain on US Forest Service land [JURIST report]. The Freedom From Religion Foundation [advocacy website] filed the suit claiming that the statue, located atop Whitefish Mountain in Montana, violated the First Amendment’s Establishment Clause [text]. In May the Ninth Circuit upheld [JURIST report] a Santa Monica, California, city ordinance prohibiting unattended exhibits, including Nativity scenes, in Palisades Park. Last year a judge for the US District Court for the District of New Mexico ruled that a New Mexico city must remove a Ten Commandments monument [JURIST report] placed outside of Bloomfield city hall.