标题: Constitutionality of Governments closed on Good Friday or Easter [打印本页] 作者: choi 时间: 4-2-2018 14:36 标题: Constitutionality of Governments closed on Good Friday or Easter (1) Brookline Public Library closed on Easter. I had searched the website of Boston Public Library, which did not announce it would be closed on Easter; in fact its event calendar had showed an activity for Easter. I went, and it was closed. I went to Cambridge Public Library, which luckily for me was open.
(2) I was curious whether it would be unconstitutional to observe Easter, in violation of First Amendment (separation of church and state).
(a) It turns out that people have sued, and governments said ithey were not observing, say, Good Friday, but had a spring break. So it was OK for the governments. See
Bridenbaugh v O'Bannon (CA7 1999) 185 F.3d 796, 799 https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=14245734496602135667
("providing a spring holiday was the precise purpose in the other two appellate decisions addressing an Establishment Clause challenge to a Good Friday closing. These courts upheld the closing based on that secular purpose. See Cammack v Waihee (CA9 1991) 932 F.2d 765 (closing Hawaii public schools); Granzeier v Middleton (CA6 1999) 173 F.3d 568 (closing Kentucky county courts). In this case, like Hawaii and Kentucky but unlike Illinois, Indiana also justifies its Good Friday closing as accomplishing the secular purpose of providing a spring holiday")
(b) So a government can not say it closes for Good Friday.
The same decision (Bridenbaugh, 185 F.3d, at 798) stated:
"our decision in Metzl v Leininger (CA7 1995) 57 F.3d 618 * * * the plaintiff sued Illinois alleging that Illinois violated the Establishment Clause when it made Good Friday a legal holiday in the public school system. Illinois argued that the holiday was justified for secular reasons because it would 'save the school system the expense of keeping the schools open on a day when very few teachers and students can be expected to attend.' Id. at 621." The Seventh Circuit (in Metzel) struck down Illinois state statute making Good Friday a state holiday.