3rd Circuit Upholds Public School Ban On "Silent Night" And Other Religious Holiday Music Even If Only Instrumental Versions

The U.S. 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a New Jersey school district's policy banning celebratory religious holiday music at school-sponsored holiday concerts. The Court concluded saying that "those of us who were educated in the public schools remember holiday celebrations replete with Christmas carols, and possibly even Chanukah songs, to which no objection had been raised. Since then, the governing principles have been examined and defined with more particularity. Many decisions about how to best create an inclusive environment in public schools, such as those at issue here, are left to the sound discretion of the school authorities." The Newark Star-Ledger explains the background to this case reporting that the "controversy dates to 2004 when the Maplewood-South Orange district extended a 1990 ban on singing religious songs in school performances to include instrumental versions of those songs." Tweet