Ganulin v. United States

This suit was filed in United States federal court in Cincinnati in 1998. Richard Ganulin challenged Christmas as a federal holiday, arguing that its religious character violates the separation of church and state. Christmas has been an official holiday in the United States since 1870.

U.S. District Judge Susan J. Dlott rejected the challenge in December 1999 with the following verse:

The court will address
Plaintiff's seasonal confusion
Erroneously believing Christmas
Merely a religious intrusion.

Whatever the reason
Constitutional or other
Christmas is not
An act of Big Brother!

Christmas is about joy
And giving and sharing
It is about the child within us
It is mostly about caring!

One is never jailed
For not having a tree
For not going to church
For not spreading glee!

The court will uphold
Seemingly contradictory clauses
Decreeing "The Establishment" and "Santa"
Both worthwhile "Claus(es)"!

We are all better for Santa
The Easter Bunny too
And maybe the Great Pumpkin
To name just a few!

An extra day off
Is hardly high treason
It may be spent as you wish
Regardless of reason.

The court having read
The lessons of Lynch1
Refuses to play
The role of the Grinch!2

There is room in this country
And in all our hearts too
For different convictions
And a day off too!

1Lynch v. Donnelly, 465 U.S. 668 (1984).
2Dr. Seuss, How the Grinch Stole Christmas.

Her decision (71 F. Supp. 2d 824 (S.D. Ohio 1999)), despite the questionable literary effort accompanying it, was upheld by the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of appeals and, on 16 April 2001, the Supreme Court of the United States dismissed Ganulin's appeal.

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