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Published December 13, 2014

FILE- In this Dec. 11, 2010 file photo, SantaCon participants John Paul, center, dressed as an Elf and Michael Smallwood, dressed as Santa, ride the E train downtown New York. The annual event has faced mounting pressure from politicians, police and community groups as it grew from hundreds to thousands of costumed participants in roughly a decade. This years festivities fall on the same day as a planned march to protest recent killings of unarmed civilians by police. Santacon organizers are asking celebrants to keep their partying indoors (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer, File)(The Associated Press)

NEW YORK New York's costumed pub crawl known as SantaCon is under way after a prominent civil rights lawyer gave attendees lesson in the First Amendment.

Lawyer Norman Siegel said Saturday the government cannot ban SantaCon. But he said the government can reasonably regulate the event.

SantaCon organizers retained Siegel last week as part of an effort to tame the excesses of the daylong party. Attendees started spreading out among midtown bars shortly after he spoke.

New Yorkers have complained in past years about drunken Santas vomiting in the streets. But organizers say last year's SantaCon raised $60,000 for charity, mostly through partnerships with participating bars.

This year's festivities fall on the same day as a planned protest over killings by police.

SantaCon organizers have expressed respect for the demonstration.

Here is the original post:
NYC's SantaCon kicks off with First Amendment lesson

The Three Wise Men are depicted on the nativity scene at Christ Church Cathedral on Monument Circle in Downtown Indianapolis. A similar Christian Nativity scene on the courthouse lawn in Brookville, Ind., has pitted town residents against a Wisconsin group dedicated to preserving the separation of church and state.(Photo: Matt Kryger / The Star file photo)

Every year for the past five decades, about a dozen Brookville residents build a Nativity scene outside the county courthouse.

They use donated materials and repaint the figurines using money from a donation jar. Shortly after Thanksgiving, volunteers put up the display on the courthouse lawn, and it stays there until early January.

Brookville resident Wayne Monroe came up with the idea 50 years ago. Everybody loves it, he said.

For them, it has become a tradition, a celebration of Christianity. Franklin County Commissioner Tom Wilson said erecting the Nativity scene is an expression of residents' constitutional rights of freedom of religion and speech.

Others disagree.

The Freedom From Religion Foundation, a Madison, Wisc.-based nonprofit, has been sending letters to the county commissioners since 2010, asking the county to take down the "unlawful" display from public property. A second letter, sent in December 2013, says the Nativity scene is a constitutional violation that shows that the government endorses one religion over another.

Allowing the display to be erected each year shows that the Franklin County Commissioners prefer "Christianity over all minority religion and non religion," said Sam Grover, staff attorney for the Freedom From Religion Foundation. "That's not appropriate."

The county commissioners ignored the letters. The volunteers continued putting up the display every year. Others advocated for keeping the town's tradition.

An online campaign website called "Save Brookville Indiana Courthouse Nativity Scene" that was started shortly after the foundation first contacted the county commissioners has gained more than 10,000 members. Supporters also have started a change.org petition to keep the display on the courthouse lawn on Main Street in Brookville, which is about 75 miles southeast of Indianapolis.

Continued here:
First Amendment dispute pits nonprofit against Nativity display

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