Green Bay considers holiday display rules

GREEN BAY, Wis., Dec. 18 (UPI) -- The mayor of Green Bay, Wis., said he has created a list of proposed guidelines for approved sizes and styles of future religious displays at City Hall.

Mayor Jim Schmitt said after a Wiccan display was stolen and damaged overnight Sunday that the display wouldn't be replaced and no further displays would be put up until the City Council debates the guidelines he drew up with City Attorney Allison Swanson, the Green Bay Press-Gazette reported Tuesday.

The guidelines include provisions limiting religious displays to the month of December and requiring them to contain legitimate religious symbolism.

However, critics of the plan say Schmitt's guidelines do nothing to address the constitutional issues at play.

"Who is to say what is a legitimate religious institution?" said Maureen Manion, a retired political science professor and constitutional law expert at St. Norbert College. "Is there a check-off list? That's shaky constitutional ground, as far as I'm concerned."

Terri Johnson, a professor of U.S. government and politics at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay, said limiting the displays to December shows a preference for Christians and ignores other religions with important holidays at other times of the year.