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CV NEWS FEED // A legal expert on religious freedom and education law recently criticized the Town Commission of Fairfield, Connecticut, for actions against a local Knights of Columbus chapter that he described as “offensive… to all Christians.”
Charles J. Russo is the Joseph Panzer Chair of Education at the University of Dayton, where he also directs the Ph.D. Program in Educational Leadership and serves as a Research Professor of Law. He is also an Adjunct Professor at Notre Dame University of Australia’s School of Law.
Russo’s comments come in a September 3 article he wrote for Catholic World Report titled “Anti-Catholic discrimination is in season in Fairfield, Connecticut.”
Russo explained that a federal trial court has allowed a lawsuit that the Chapter filed against the Commission to proceed. The lawsuit highlights the Commission’s previous denial of the Knights’ request to display a Nativity scene in a public park.
The Knights of Columbus have set up a Nativity scene in a Fairfield park each December since 1983. However, their 2020 and 2021 applications to relocate the display to a larger, more visible park were denied by the Town Commission. The Commission reportedly cited COVID-19 concerns and local opposition to religious displays as reasons for the denial, according to Russo.
Russo noted, “But the Commission allowed a menorah lighting in the same location while others engaged in various activities.” In 2022, the Commission granted the Knights’ request after COVID restrictions were lifted.
“Consequently, the Knights raised six claims in the federal trial court seeking a declaration that the Commission violated their rights, ordering it to stop doing so, and requesting damages,” Russo wrote.
He reflected that the federal trial “court found that the Commission’s rationale for denying the Knights’ 2020 application was nothing more than a pretext for discrimination.” He also pointed to the Commission member’s comment questioning the religious nature of the Nativity scene as particularly problematic.
“At best, this remark represents hubris and overreaching,” Russo stated. “[A]t worst, it exemplifies public officials’ arbitrary interference in religious matters over which they are supposed to be neutral as they attempt to divine the meaning of theological disputes in a secular society.”
Russo emphasized that the Commission should have handled religious displays impartially to uphold constitutional rights and avoid allegations of bias. He noted that Catholics and non-Catholic Christians should question why the Commission allowed for the menorah to be displayed but did not grant the Knights their request.
He wrote, “The Fairfield Commission’s actions were offensive to Catholics in particular and, indeed, to all Christians.”
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