810
Stevens, J., dissenting
ting an unattended symbol to adorn the capitol grounds.18
Accordingly, the fact that the menorah, and later the cross, stood in an area available " 'for free discussion of public questions, or for activities of a broad public purpose,' " Ohio Rev. Code Ann. § 105.41 (1994), quoted ante, at 757, is fully consistent with the conclusion that the State sponsored those religious symbols. They, like the thermometer and the booths, were displayed in a context that connotes state approval.
This case is therefore readily distinguishable from Widmar v. Vincent, 454 U. S. 263 (1981), and Lamb's Chapel v. Center Moriches Union Free School Dist., 508 U. S. 384 (1993). In both of those cases, as we made perfectly clear, there was no danger of incorrect identification of the speakers and no basis for inferring that their messages had been endorsed by any public entity. As we explained in the later case:
"Under these circumstances, as in Widmar, there would have been no realistic danger that the community would think that the District was endorsing religion or any particular creed, and any benefit to religion or to the Church would have been no more than incidental. As in Widmar, supra, at 271-272, permitting District property to be used to exhibit the film involved in this case would not have been an establishment of religion under the three-part test articulated in Lemon v. Kurtzman, 403 U. S. 602 (1971): The challenged governmental action has a secular purpose, does not have the principal or primary effect of advancing or inhibiting religion, and does not foster an excessive entanglement with religion." Id., at 395 (footnote omitted).
In contrast, the installation of the religious symbols in Capitol Square quite obviously did "have the principal or
18 Of course, neither of these endorsements was religious in nature, and thus neither was forbidden by the Constitution.
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