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Court Gives Green Light to Lawsuit Challenging School Christmas Music Ban
By Allie Martin
AgapePress
October 11, 2006

(AgapePress) -- Although a lower court dismissed the complaint, a federal court has now ruled that a legal challenge to a New Jersey school district's ban on Christmas music can proceed to trial.

In December of 2004, administrators with the South Orange/Maplewood School District banned the playing of Christmas music during year-end celebrations in its public schools. The Thomas More Law Center sued on behalf of a district parent and his two school-age children.

A district court dismissed the complaint, claiming the Law Center failed to state a claim under the Constitution of the United States. However, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit has ruled the challenge can go forward.

Robert Muise is trial counsel with the Thomas More Law Center. He says the district's policy is another example of the hostility that is currently being directed toward Christians and Christmas. "It's sort of a systematic attempt on the part of many people to remove any vestige of religion from the public square," he says, "and one of their main targets is to remove anything that has to do with Christmas, a national holiday, out of the public schools."

The South Orange/Maplewood School District's policy regarding holiday music was featured in a book by Fox News anchor John Gibson titled The War on Christmas. Muise feels the case is a significant one and that Christians need to stand up for their rights under the Constitution.

"We're trying to maintain the religious heritage and the religious traditions that have made this country a great country," the Thomas More Law Center spokesman says, "and there are those who are out to remove those."

A systematic assault on Christmas has been launched and is well under way, Muise contends -- an attack that he says is being led by the ACLU and others. "And we're not just going to sit back and let it happen," he insists. Fighting this school district's ban "is just one step further in the direction of restoring Christian traditions and restoring Christmas," the attorney contends.

Muise says the South Orange/Maplewood ban violates the constitutional rights of the New Jersey school district's students to hear Christmas music, and the Third U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals apparently agreed. The appellate court awarded the Law Center costs for having to bring the appeal.

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