ACLU Threatens Suit Over Holiday Display

It's an event that has become as much a part of the Christmas season as eggnog and wish lists -- it's the annual lawsuit festival conducted each year by the American Civil Liberties Union. Only this year the ACLU is putting a new twist on the tradition by demanding that Maui County (Hawaii) government officials put up a Christmas tree or be slapped with a federal lawsuit.

It seems that a local rabbi, after obtaining permission from the mayor, placed a lighted menorah in front of the Kalana O Maui Building. That's when the local ACLU wrote a letter threatening to sue the county. The ACLU warned that displaying the Hanukkah menorah was unconstitutional and that they would sue if the condition was not fixed. So five days before Christmas, government employees were sent out to put up an 11-foot Monterey pine next to the unconstitutional menorah.

After county employees adorned the tree with $250.00 worth of white lights and a bow with streamers, the ACLU pronounced the holiday display sufficiently "secularized" to pass constitutional muster -- and avoid a lawsuit.