December 2015 - Parks & Recreation - 28

L AW R E V I E W

Park Ban on Unattended Holiday Displays
By James C. Kozlowski, J.D., Ph.D.

I

f you can't do it right, don't do it at all. As illustrated by the federal circuit court opinion described herein, this approach may not only make good
common sense, but also good legal sense under certain circumstances. Traditional holiday displays in public parks have increasingly generated contentious constitutional law challenges, particularly by individuals and groups opposed to any display of religious symbolism in public spaces in general and public
parks in particular. Over the years, many of these traditional holiday displays
giving rise to legal controversies had been erected and maintained by private parties with the tacit or expressed permission of the local government.
More Trouble Than It's Worth
In the case of Santa Monica Nativity
Scenes Committee v. City of Santa Monica, 784 F.3d 1286; 2015 U.S. App.
LEXIS 7155 (9th Cir. 4/30/2015),
upon the advice of legal counsel, the
city chose to avoid potentially costly
constitutional law pitfalls by eliminating private holiday displays altogether from a popular public park.
Palisades Park in Santa Monica,
California, regarded as the " crown

26	 Parks & Recreation

jewel " of the city's park system, is
a picturesque 14-block strip of land
that overlooks Santa Monica State
Beach and the Pacific Ocean. Beginning in about 1955, every year during
December, local residents erected a
series of large dioramas in the park
depicting various scenes from the
biblical story of Christmas.
The display consisted of 14 booths,
each 18 feet long and filled with lifesized mannequins and decorations.

| D E C E M B E R 2 0 1 5 | W W W. N R PA . O R G

Putting up and taking down this elaborate display was a significant undertaking, and in 1983, the nonprofit
Santa Monica Nativity Scenes Committee ( " committee " ) was organized
to manage the yearly construction of
the dioramas.
In the early years of the nativity
scene's existence, the City of Santa
Monica had no formal regulations
dealing with private, unattended
structures on public parkland, and
the city allowed and even encouraged
the yearly display of the committee's
nativity scenes.
In 1994, the city prohibited the
construction of unattended displays
- i.e., large, multiday installations
- in its parks, but nonetheless continued to allow the nativity scenes.
Subsequently, in 2003, the city
council enacted an exception to the



December 2015 - Parks & Recreation

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