Menorah lighting on Sunday is a free speech issue

By Diane Hettrick

Some readers have expressed their concerns about the City of Shoreline appearing to sponsor a religious event with the announcement published here that the Chabad Jewish Russian Center would hold a public menorah lighting ceremony at City Hall on Sunday at 4pm.

City staff point out that this is not a city-sponsored event and that City Hall will be closed. The group applied for a permit through the Parks department and paid $20 for the use of the front steps for a few hours.

This is not a permanent display. Everything will be taken down at the end of the event that evening.

As a legal issue, cities are bound by the rulings of the Supreme Court.

The Supreme Court has held the First Amendment of the United States Constitution applies to religious worship and discussions. 

Since the decision of Widmar v. Vincent, 454 U.S. 263, 267(1981), the Supreme Court has consistently held that once a governmental entity establishes a forum open generally to use by the public, it assumes an obligation to justify its discriminations and exclusions under applicable constitutional rulings. 

In essence, the Court’s rulings hold that government cannot exclude religious speech simply because of its religious character. 

For example, in Lamb's Chapel v. Center Moriches Union Free School, 508 U. S. 385 (1993), the Court concluded that a school board's policy that refused to allow a church to show a religious film at a public school after school hours when other civic and social organizations could use the facilities favored non-religious over religious viewpoints and that such a policy violated the First Amendment's Free Speech clause. 

The Court also concluded that the use of school property to show the film did not violate the First Amendment's Establishment Clause, because the film was open to the public and not scheduled during school hours or sponsored by the school.