Gov. Greg Abbott engaged in improper censorship when he ordered the removal of an atheist group’s mock Nativity display from the Capitol in 2015, a federal judge has ruled.

At the time, Abbott described the display — which depicted Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, George Washington and the Statue of Liberty gazing upon the Bill of Rights as it lay in a manger — as a spiteful message of "tasteless sarcasm" meant to mock religion and "our nation’s Judeo-Christian heritage."

The Freedom From Religion Foundation, which displayed the exhibit shortly before Christmas, sued Abbott, arguing that the governor’s order violated its free speech rights.

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