Suit Seeks to Curb Escondido Religious Banners

An atheists’ group that fought to have the Escondido library accept a free subscription to American Atheist magazine filed a lawsuit Wednesday to keep the city from using its light poles to hoist religious banners during Christmas season.

Stephen D. Thorne, director of the San Diego chapter of American Atheists, alleged that the city is violating the constitutional separation between church and state by allowing banners that read “Christ Lives,” “Born to Die,” and “Jesus Is The Reason for the Season.”

Thorne rejected the city’s offer to put a tastefully worded atheistic banner beside the other banners, which are sponsored by the Chamber of Commerce, Downtown Business Assn. and Escondido Inter-Faith Council.

“An atheist banner would be just as illegal as a Christian, Buddhist or Hindu banner,” said Thorne, an Escondido resident. “We want them all down. A banner that says only ‘Peace on Earth,’ or ‘Good Will Toward Men’ is fine because atheists believe in those things too. But anything overtly religious, or using the religious symbols such as the cross, Yule log, Santa Claus, or the light in the east is imposing a religion.”

Council Divided

A divided City Council last December rejected Thorne’s request to refer the issue to the city attorney. But, sensing that Thorne was about to file suit, the council moved recently in closed session to ask the attorney to review whether the city is on solid legal ground. That review has not been completed.

City Manager Vernon Hazen said that, outside of the concern by Thorne, the city has “not heard of any dismay from the community” over the banners.

“First, these are not city banners,” Hazen said. “The city only puts them up for the private groups to avoid the insurance problems of non-employees climbing the poles. Our goal is not to foster any religion but to let our citizens express their feelings about the holiday season.”

The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in San Diego, seeks to have the city blocked from hoisting the banners this Christmas season, and to have a ruling that the city has violated the U.S. Constitution and the California Constitution. Plaintiffs are Thorne and the Society of Separationists, a Maryland-based atheists’ group to which Thorne belongs.

In 1984, the U.S. Supreme Court voted 5-4 to uphold the ownership and display of a Nativity scene by Pawtucket, R.I. The court noted that Christmas is a national holiday and that referring to Christian figures or beliefs merely recognizes “a significant historical religious event long celebrated in the Western world.”

The Pawtucket decision, however, did not establish guidelines on what would be an unacceptable imposition of religion by government.

The banners in Escondido express a number of sentiments from the Seasons Greetings variety to those mentioned in the lawsuit. The banners are erected on light poles on eight blocks of Valley Parkway between Valley Boulevard and Centre City Parkway from early December to early January.

A Fine Line

John Serrano, the assistant city attorney, said he has yet to receive a copy of Thorne’s lawsuit. But he added that it is a fine line between what is an historic or general expression of good will and what is a specific religious reference.