By Steve Gorman
LOS ANGELES, Nov 19 (Reuters) - A federal judge denied a bid
by a group of Christian churches on Monday to force a California
beachside town to reopen a park to a nearly 60-year-old
Christmas-season nativity display it discontinued after atheists
upstaged the event last year.
The court action grew out of a clash between sponsors of the
nativity scenes and a group of atheist activists who competed
with the churches for limited space in Santa Monica's biggest
public park and managed to dominate last year's holiday displays
with anti-religious messages.
Following the December 2011 controversy, the Santa Monica
City Council voted in June to bar any future unattended private
displays in Palisades Park, including Christmas creches or
atheist exhibits, regardless of content.
But the church-backed group, the Nativity Scenes Committee,
filed suit in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles in October,
seeking to restore it annual collection of diorama scenes
depicting the birth of Jesus.
The lawsuit says that Santa Monica's newly imposed ban on
unattended park displays, a policy the city has billed as
"content neutral," poses an unconstitutional infringement on the
church group's freedom of speech and expression of religion.
But U.S. District Judge Audrey Collins refused the Christian
group's request for a preliminary injunction that would have
required the city to allow a return of the nativity displays
during the holiday season while the case proceeds.
Collins said the Christian group retains the right to
present its religious exhibit on private property in other
locations throughout the city.
Barry Rosenbaum, an attorney for the city, told reporters
after the hearing that Santa Monica's policy change would
withstand judicial scrutiny because the ban "did not look at the
content or subject matter of these displays."
But the plaintiff's lawyer, William Becker, vowed to appeal,
saying that "religious speech enjoys as much protection in
public places as secular speech."
Damon Vix, an atheist who led the non-believers' cause but
is not a party to the lawsuit, has denied he was seeking to
drive the church displays out of the park. He said in a local
radio interview last year that his aim "was to try to create
what is called equal protection under the law."
"I wanted to achieve a presence as large as the Christian
groups," he said during an appearance on KPCC-FM.
He and supporters won a city lottery last year awarding them
18 of 21 display spots. Two other spaces went to the church
group, and a third was allocated for a Hanukkah display.
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