Several times, the Pageant of Peace has been the subject of legal dispute. The first legal challenge occurred in 1968 when the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) objected to the inclusion of the Christian nativity scene in the pageant. The ACLU argued the display violated the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution. Although the National Park Service responded that the nativity scene was not religious per se but a symbol "of the national holiday", the agency did agree not to store, maintain, or erect the display (turning those duties over to Pageant of Peace, Inc., in September 1968). The legal effort to remove the creche continued the following year. In 1969, three clergymen, an atheist, and a member of the Ethical Society sued to have the nativity scene removed. Once more, the Park Service said the nativity scene was merely a symbol of "our spiritual heritage" and "wholly secular". The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit denied on December 12, 1969, a request for a temporary injunction barring construction of the display. The court's ruling said it would decide the case on its merits at a later date. The five plaintiffs were represented by the ACLU, and joined by the American Jewish Congress. In April 1970, the court of appeals ordered a full trial on the issue. Although the trial was set for February 1, 1971, the plaintiffs and ACLU declined to seek a temporary injunction against the display in December 1970 in favor of a permanent resolution of the issue. On November 3, 1971, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia ruled in "Allen v. Morton", 333 F.Supp. 1088, (D.D.C. 1971), that inclusion of the nativity display did not violate the Establishment Clause of the Constitution. The court said that the purpose of the event was purely secular (to increase tourism and shopping in the city), and that was determinative. But on September 26, 1973, a unanimous three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit overturned the district court's ruling. The appellate court held that the commercial nature of the event did not mean that the creche lost its religious meaning, and that the government's involvement in displaying the creche was not the absolute minimum necessary to meet the Supreme Court's constitutional tests. The appellate court did not explicitly bar the government from allowing the nativity display, but laid out very specific rules under which the government's participation could occur.