Federal Court Upholds Iowa Ruling Barring Overnight Menorah Display

The state of Iowa did not discriminate against the Lubavitch movement in 1986 when it refused to allow the organization to leave a Chanukah menorah standing on the grounds of the state Capitol overnight, a federal court ruled Monday.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit affirmed a lower court ruling allowing the state to ask Lubavitch to take down its 20-foot candelabrum each evening after a public candle lighting event on the Capitol grounds in Des Moines.

Chief Justice Donald Lay said there was no evidence that the state had allowed any other religious symbols to remain on state grounds overnight.

“We find Lubavitch’s claim borders on the frivolous,” Lay wrote in a four-page ruling.

But the court acknowledged that it did not rule on the free speech or constitutional questions raised in this and other cases involving the display of religious symbols.

When Iowa first moved to revoke permission for the menorah, it was acting on the state attorney general’s advice that the display of unattended religious symbols on state Capitol grounds might violate the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment. The clause prohibits government establishment of religion.

Lay’s ruling only upheld a state ordinance calling for a “thorough clean-up” after an event on Capitol grounds is concluded.

LUBAVITCH ‘OFFENDED’ BY RULING

Paul Zoss, attorney for Lubavitch of Iowa, said the state at first objected to the menorah as a violation of church-state separation, later changing course to invoke the “overnight” restrictions.

“Restrictions on speech should be content neutral,” he said. “These restrictions are the result of the fact that it was a religious event.”

“Naturally we’re very disappointed in the court’s decision,” said Rabbi Moishe Kasowitz, director of Lubavitch of Iowa. “And we’re a bit offended by the court’s implication that we were bringing a frivolous. The lower courts did not seem to find it frivolous.”

A number of Jewish groups lined up against the Lubavitch position in a friend-of-the-court brief written by the American Jewish Congress.

Mare Stern, co-director of the AJCongress Commission on Law and Social Action, said that by only prohibiting overnight displays, the Iowa ordinance did not infringe upon a group’s right to speak or hold a religious ceremony of limited duration.

He said other municipalities have begun to draft similar “overnight” ordinances in order to circumvent the church-state issues raised by seasonal menorah and nativity scene displays.

The AJCongress brief was filed on behalf of the Jewish Federation of Greater Des Moines, several local synagogues and two Reform groups: the Central Conference of American Rabbis and the Union of American Hebrew Congregations.

The U.S. Supreme Court is now reviewing a case involving the display of religious symbols, including a menorah erected by Lubavitch, on municipal buildings in Pittsburgh. A decision is expected by July 1.