I was surprised to read in the local newspaper that the county commissioners are putting up a nativity display on the county courthouse lawn here in Zanesville, Ohio (Muskingum County). From glancing at the court decisions (I am not a lawyer), I infer that (these days), such displays are permitted as a legitimate use of a public forum (no endorsement is to be inferred from the fact of the display's existence). So I am not going to spend time objecting (as some people are), but I was not aware of this permissiveness here in the U.S.A.