In King County, Washington, home to liberal Seattle, government bureaucrats want county employees to take down any religious symbols. So in addition to the cross and nativity scenes, they have their eyes on the Jewish holiday Hanukkah, and on the religions of Islam and Hinduism – pretty much anything that acknowledges something that is beyond the State.
Hiram Sasser, an attorney with First Liberty Institute, says the ban includes employees working from home if the symbol is visible in a Zoom meeting. That, he says, is a violation of the religious liberty rights of employees.
“It's sort of an indication of where we are culturally,” he warns. “That anything that acknowledges something greater than just sort of the state, they just want to ban all of that and keep people from having any kind of faith shown at all."
In an op-ed published at Fox News, Sasser says a 2018 case that originated in Washington state defended the right of a firefighter to include a religious message in emails. That case is Sprague v. Spokane Valley Fire Department.
“If somebody's employer is banning them from having any kind of religious displays,” Sasser says, “especially in their own home, where they are working from home but it be visible via Zoom, they need to call First liberty so we can represent them and get that fixed."
