Federal District Judge Alexander Holtzoff has ruled that the Post Office Department’s annual Christmas stamp does not violate constitutional guarantees of the separation of church and state.
He denied a request by Protestants and Other Americans United for the Separation of Church and State for an injunction to prevent issuance of the Christmas stamp this year. He said that, while the Constitution provided for “a separation of church and state,” it did not require a separation of religion and state.
The Protestant group said that the stamp, a reproduction of Hans Memling’s “Madonna and Child,” was “a religious symbol commonly associated with the Roman Catholic Church.”
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