Thanksgiving & Alito....

How relevant, how timely!

Judge Alito in C.H. v. Oliva
Over the course of his 15 years as a federal
appellate judge, Judge Samuel A. Alito, Jr.
consistently has given full effect to the First
Amendment’s guarantees of religious liberty.

C.H.v. Oliva, 226 F.3d 198 (3d Cir. 2000)
(en banc), is a key case in which he refused
to sanction the efforts of public school
administrators to discriminate against
religious speech.In Oliva, an elementary
school encouraged students to contribute
to a Thanksgivingdisplay on school property.

In particular, the pupils were invited to
make posters depicting the things for which
they were thankful. One of students, a Christian,
decided to make a poster expressing his
thanks for Jesus Christ.

Although the school permitted the display of
other students’ posters giving thanks for certain
secular things, it barred the Christian student
from displaying his poster expressing thanks
for Jesus.

The school also barred the student from reading
religious-themed stories to his class, despite the
fact that other students were permitted to read
secular stories to their classes.

The en banc Third Circuit upheld the school’s
decision to exclude the Christian posterand to
bar the reading of Christian stories. In dissent,
Judge Alito argued that the school hadviolated
the First Amendment by discriminating against
religious speech.

According to Judge Alito, “public school students
have the right to express religious views in class
discussion or in assigned work.” Id. at 210. In
particular, “the poster was allegedly given
discriminatory treatment because of the viewpoint
that it expressed, because it expressed thanks for
Jesus, rather than for some secular thing. This was
quintessential viewpoint discrimination, and it was
proscribed by the First Amendment . . . .”
Id. at 212.