It is not a violation of the First Amendment for a utility to contract with a Jewish religious group to allow it to attach strips of wood or plastic to utility poles to create symbolic boundaries for certain members of the Jewish faith, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit ruled yesterday.
The Second Circuit upheld the dismissal of a case challenging the attachment of the strips—called lechis—to utility poles to delineate an “eruv,” a defined space that permits certain Jews to push and carry objects and engage in other activities that are otherwise prohibited on the Sabbath and many holidays.
