Religious Displays Banned in Wash. State Capitol

OLYMPIA, Wash. — The state is trying to avoid another holiday-season controversy by barring religious and other nongovernmental displays inside buildings at the Capitol campus in Olympia.

The new rules were signed Friday by the director of the Department of General Administration. They still allow the annual state-sponsored holiday tree inside the Capitol rotunda.

Last year, a Nativity display at the capitol stirred controversy after a Wisconsin-based atheist group put up a nearby placard mocking religion. A number of other displays followed, and the state eventually declared a moratorium that froze several pending permit requests.

The fight might just move outdoors. Under the new rules, religious displays are OK outside the Capitol buildings.