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A federal appeals court unanimously ruled Thursday that Santa Monica, Calif. did not violate the First Amendment by banning nativity displays in a public park. The city’s nativity committee sued in 2012 after the application process for securing locations to set up the dioramas was closed (they had been getting too many applications from a group of atheists to pre-empt the spots). A district judge ruled for the city in 2012 and on Thursday, the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the Santa Monica Nativity Scenes Committee had no “viable claim” that the city had violated the constitution.