BY BEN L. KAUFMAN
The Cincinnati Enquirer
The Justice Department has asked U.S. District Judge Susan J. Dlott to dismiss a Cincinnatian's challenge to Christmas as a national legal holiday.
U.S. Attorney Sharon Zealey said in a filing last week that Richard Ganulin's suit misses the point:
"The celebration of Christmas as a national holiday cannot be viewed, by a reasonable person, as an endorsement of religion. The holiday itself is so deeply imbued with secular connotations that, indeed, its religious origins are lost on many."
The government response to Mr. Ganulin's suit -- drafted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Donetta D. Wiethe -- said:
Christmas as a legal holiday has a secular - cultural purpose and does excessively entangle government with religion.
Making Christmas a legal holiday is not an endorsement of religion.
Celebrating Christmas has become part of the "fabric of our society."
